FEBRUARY 1989 BVTE PERSONAL WORKSTATIONS • C COMPILERS • MAC SE/30 Volume 14, Number 2
Special Section: Personal Workstations in Depth
FEBRUARY 1989 A McGRAW-HILL PUBLICATION
REVIEWS
Portable ATs from
Zenith and Mitsubishi
MASM, Turbo Assembler,
and OPTASM
Tandy 5000 MC
dBASE IV
PRODUCT FOCUS
The New Mac SE/30
Mac II power
with
an SE price
PLUS
Paradox 3
A Contender
for “Best DBMS”
Digital Paper
Turbo Windowina
o
$3.50 U.S.A./S4.50 IN CANADA
0350-5200
TO ALLAY YOUR SUSPICIONS
Your Total Satisfaction
Is Guaranteed.
Dell offers a complete line of systems, peripherals and
software.
And whatever you choose, you must be absolutely,
totally satisfied with it. If not, simply return it within the
first 30 days fora money-back refund. No questions asked.
We call this our Total Satisfaction Guarantee.
Support Is
A Free Phone Call Away.
Also included in your system price is our toll-free support
The New 25 MHz
386 System 325.
The Dell 20 MHz
386 System 310.
line. It’s open every business day from 7 AM to 7 PM (CT).
Simply dial (800) 624-9896.
On-Site Service Is Included
In Your System Price.
For those rare problems that can’t be handled over the
phone, we’ll send a service technician to your location
by the next business day. At absolutely no charge to
you? Because included in system price is a year’s worth of
When you need the highest possible
performance of any 386, this is the tech¬
nology of choice. Running at 25 MHz,
the System 325 is faster than the Com¬
paq 386/25. Besides unequaled speed, it
also offers Intel’s Advanced 82385 Cache
Memory Controller and high perfor¬
mance disk drives. As a result, it gives
you workstation-level performance for
CAD/CAM and desktop publishing
applications. It’s also especially effective
as a network file server, and more than
capable of handling the most complex
spreadsheets and databases.
For business users who need a 386 sys¬
tem, this is the best combination of per¬
formance and value available. Running
at 20 MHz, this 32-bit system is faster
than the IBM PS/2 Model 70 and the
Compaq 386/20e. Since it has the same
high performance disk drives and Intel
Advanced 82385 Cache Memory Con¬
troller as our System 325, it brings a new
level of performance to complex spread¬
sheets and databases. As you might expect,
it runs windowed software at extremely
high speed. It’s also well-suited for desk¬
top publishing applications, or as a net¬
work file server.
on-site service.
One-Year Warranty.
Dell offers a one-year limited warranty, which warrants
each system we manufacture to be free of defects in
materials and workmanship for one full year. During that
period we will repair or replace any defective products
returned to our factory.
For a lot of companies, leasing our systems is an even
better idea because of the cash flow and tax advantages.
And we guarantee fixed rates, so you know exactly how
much to budget each month. We can even custom design
a lease plan to fit the exact needs of your business.
For the complete terms of our On-Site Service Con¬
tract, Satisfaction Guarantee, Warranty and leasing plans,
write: Dell Computer Corporation, 9505 Arboretum Blvd.,
Standard Features:
■ Intel 80386 microprocessor running at 25 MHz.
• I MB of RAM* * expandable to 16 MB using a
dedicated ihigh speed 32-bit memory slot.
- Advanced b\tel 82385 Cache Memory
Controller with 32 'KB of high speed static
RAM cache.
• hge mock interleaved memory architecture.
• VGA svs&tra include a high performance 16-
fcit video adopter.
• Socket for 25 MHz Intel 80387 or 25 MHz
WEITEK 3167 math coprocessor.
• 5.25 " 1.2 MB or 3.5" 1.44 MB diskette drive.
• Dual diskette and hard disk drive controller.
• Enhanced 101-key keyboard.
a 1 parallel and 2 serial ports.
• 200-watt power supply.
• 8 industry standard expansion slots.
Options:
• 25 MHz Intel 80387 math coprocessor.
• I MB or 4 MB memory upgrade kit.
• 2 MB or 8 MB memory expansion board kit.
• * Lease for as low as $245/ Month.
System 325
With Monitor & Adapter
Hard Disk Drives
VGA Mono
VGA Color Plus
150 MB-18 ms ESDI
S6,799
57,099
322 MB-18 ms ESDI
58,799
59,099
Austin, Texas 78759-7299.
The Dell System 325 is an FCC Class A device,
intended for business use only.
Standard Features:
• Intel 80386 microprocessor running at 20 MHz.
• 1 MB of RAM* expandable to 16 MB using a
dedicated high speed 32-bit memory slot.
•Advanced Intel 82385 Cache Memory
Controller with 32 KB of high speed static
RAM cache.
• Page mode interleaved memory architecture.
• VGA systems include a high performance 16-
bit video adapter.
• Socket for 20 MHz Intel 80387 or 20 MHz
WEITEK 3167 math coprocessor.
• 5.25 " 1.2 MB or 3.5 " 1.44 MB diskette drive.
• Dual diskette and hard disk drive controller.
• Enhanced 101-key keyboard.
• 1 parallel and 2 senal ports.
• 200-watt power supply.
• 8 industry standard expansion slots.
Options:
• 20 MHz Intel 80387 math coprocessor.
• 1 MB or 4 MB memory upgrade kit.
• 2 MB or 8 MB memory expansion board kit.
• * Lease for as low as $140/ Month.
System 310
With Monitor & Adapter
Hard Disk Drives
VGA Mono
VGA Color Plus
40 MB-28 ms
53,899
$4,199
90 MB18 ms ESDI
54,699
54,999
150 MB-18 ms ESDI
55,199
55,499
322 MB-18 ms ESDI
57,199
57,499
All prices and specifications are subject to change without notice. Dell cannot be responsible for errors in typography or photography. ••Payments based on a 36-month open-end lease.
In Canada, configurations and prices will vary. Microsoft, MS and MS-DOS are registered trademarks owned by Microsoft Corp. Signifies trademarks of entities other than Dell Computer
PLEASE CALL
426*5150.
The Dell 20 MHz
286 System 220.
It's an 802 86 system that's as fast as most
386 computers. But at less than half the
price. Which means you get the best
price/performanee of any system. The
System 220 runs at 20 MHz, with less
than one waiE state. It also features com¬
plete compatibility with Microsoft MS-
DOS and MS OS/2, plus a remarkably
small footprint. The System 220 is the
ideal executive workstation.
Standard Features:
■ 80286 microprocessor miming at 20 MHz.
4 1 MB of RAM* expandable to 16 MB+
(8 MB+ on system board)*
* Ihge mode interleaved memory architecture.
s Integrated diskette and VGA video controller
on system board.
4 Socket for Intel 80287 math coprocessor.
* One 3.5 M 1.44 MB diskette drive.
- Integrated high performance hard disk inter¬
face on system board.
4 Enhanced 101-key keyboard.
1 1 parallel and 2 serial ports integrated on
system board.
* 3 full-sized industry standard expansion slots
available*
Options:
" External 525" 1,2 MB diskette drive.
•3.5*1.44 MB diskette drive*
- Intel 80287 math coprocessor.
* I MB RAM upgrade kit.
**Lmtfcr as low as $85/Mmih
The Dell 12.5 MHz
System 200.
A great value in a full-featured AT com¬
patible. An 80286 computer running at
12.5 MHz, this computer is completely
Microsoft MS-DOS and MS OS/2 com¬
patible The System 200 offers high speed
drive options, industry standard com¬
patible BIOS and on-site service. As
Executive Computing said of this com¬
puter's predecessor* 'Tf faster processing
speed and low cost are two key issues
affecting your purchase decision, this
machine might be the ideal choice for
your office!’
Standard Features:
*80286 microprocessor running at 12.5 MHz.
• 640 KB of RAM expandable to 16 MB+ (4.6
MBf on system board).
- Socket for Intel 80237 math coprocessor.
- 5.25 w 1.2 MB or 3.5" 1.44 MB diskette drive.
• Dual diskette and hard disk drive controller*
- Enhanced 101-key keyboard.
• 1 parallel and 2 serial ports.
• 200 -watt power supply.
- 6 industry standard expansion slots.
Options:
• Intel 80287 math coprocessor.
- 512 KB RAM upgrade kit.
as low as $99/ Month
♦Performance Enhancements
(Systems 32 5 t 310 and 220):
6-10 KB is available for programs and d*Ua. The
remaining 384 KB is reserved for use by the sys¬
tem to enhance performance.
tUsing 1 MB SIMMs. Inquirers to availability.
Laser Printers And More.
The obvious companion for a high performance Dell
system is a Del! laser or dot matrix primer. All printers
come with 30 -day money -back guarantee. And be sure
to ask about our software offerings, which include most
popular third-party applications as well as Dell Enhanced
operating system software.
Laser Printers.
Laser System 150, 15 pages per minute: 55,995.
La se r Sy ste m 80, 8 pages per m i n u te : $3 ,295 .
Lase r Sy ste m 60, 6 pages per m i n u tc ; S2 , 1 95 ,
All Dell laser printers come with L5 MB RAM, full-
page 300 DPI graphics, and have 31 standard fonts (7
resident and 24 down-loadable from diskette)* Dell laser
printers also provide Hewlett-Packard LaserJet, Epson/FX,
IBM Proprimer and Diablo 630 emulations.
Dot Matrix Printers.
Printer System 800: $699.95.
Our highest resolution text and graphics, 24 -pin dot matrix
printer. Draft quality at 200 cps. Letter quality at 66 cps.
Parallel and serial interfaces. Wide carriage.
Printers ystem 600 : $499. 95 .
9-pin dot matrix. Draft quality at 240 cps. Near-letter
quality at 60 cps. Parallel interface. Wide carriage*
Printer System 300: 5199,95.
9-pin dot matrix. Draft quality at 144 cps. Near-letter
quality at 36 cps. Four standard fonts. Parallel interface.
Narrow carriage.
Operating System Software.
Dell Enhanced Microsoft* MS-DOS* 3.3: 599.95
Dell Enhanced Microsoft MS-DOS 4.0: S 1 1 9.95
(Both MS-DOS versions with disk cache and other utilities)
Dell Enhanced MS'* OS/2 Standard Edition 1,0: 5324.95
System 220
With Monitor
Disk Drives
VGA Mono
VGA Color Plus
One Diskette Drive
£2,299
£2,599
40MB-29 ms
Hard Disk
S2*99 9
$3,299
lOQMB-29ms
Hard Disk
53,799
£4,099
System 200
With Monitor & Adapter
Hard Disk Drives
VGA Mono
VGA Color Plus
40 MB-28 ms
£2.999
90 MB- IS ms ESDI
S 3,499
£3,799
150 MB-18 tns ESDI
£3,999
£4.299
322 MB- IS ms ESDI
£5,999
$6,299
To Order, Please Call
00-426-5150
In Canada, Call 800-387-5752
Corporation. '-Service in remote locations will incur additional travel charges.
'<;39SS DELL COMPUTER CO RPORATION.
AD COPE NO. I1EB9
WHY YOU SHOULD
CONSIDER THE
DELL 386 SYSTEMS,
Despite Their
SUSPICIOUSLY LOW
PRICES.
ur 386-based systems are priced about 35%
less than comparable systems-like Compaq’s?
Which may make you wonder if we’ve left some¬
thing important out. Like high performance.
Well we haven’t.
In fact, these are among the fastest 386-based
systems available. With more advanced features
than you’d get in systems that list for up to
$3000 more.
Like Compaq’s.
For instance, our 20 MHz System 310 offers
you the best value available in any 386-based sys¬
tem. PC Magazine (6/14/88) describes it as “fast
enough to bum the sand off a desert floor.”
And If That Sounds Fast,
Wait Till You See Our New
25 MHz 386-Based System.
At 25 MHz, our new System 325 offers you the
highest possible performance in a 386. Like the
System 310, it utilizes the very latest technology,
including the Intel 82385 Cache Memory Con¬
troller, advanced 32-bit architecture and high per¬
formance drives. And of course, both systems are
fully IBM PC compatible. (For more detailed
specifications, see the inside pages.)
But speed isn’t the only reason to buy from us.
Or even the best reason.
The First Personal
Computer That’s Truly
Personal.
Dell configures systems to your own
personal specifications. After an
evaluation of your needs, we’ll help you select
the features that are right for you. After your
system unit is custom built, we’ll bum-in every¬
thing, add-in boards and all, to make sure the
entire system works perfectly.
Toll-Free Support And On-Site
Service Included In The Price.
Every Dell system includes the Dell System Ana¬
lyzer, a complete set of diagnostic tools. Which
lets Dell’s expert technicians resolve problems
right over the phone. This toll-free support serv¬
ice is available from 7 AM to 7 PM (CT) every
business day, at no extra charge.
And if your system requires hands-on service,
a technician will be at your location the next
business day. At absolutely no charge to you?
Because included in the price of your system is a
full year of on-site service.
But that’s not all. You also get our 30-day
money-back guarantee. As well as our one-year
limited warranty on parts and workmanship.
And If You Still Think You Get
What You Pay For, Consider This.
When you buy or lease from Dell, you buy
directly from our manufacturing facility in Austin,
Texas. Which means we eliminate dealer markups,
allowing us to give you a lot more 386 for less.
This same principle is behind
all the Dell systems. Review them
in detail. Then call us at (800)
426-5150 to order the system
that’s right for you.
DELL
COMPUTER
CORPORATION
Circle 73 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 • BYTE 1
EVTE
FEBRUARY 1989 VOL. 14/NO. 2
PRODUCTS IN PERSPECTIVE
65 What’s New
97 Short Takes
MegaMate,
the little drive that could
MKS Make and MKS Lex
and Yacc, Unix tools for DOS
Wordbench,
a writer's word processor
DataSentry,
inexpensive data security
Language Systems FORTRAN,
for the Mac forces
Sourcer,
a machine code disassembler
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
109 Paradox 3:
Neither Enigma nor Riddle
by Stan Miastkowski
and Nick Baran
Borland's DBMS is serious
competition for dBASE IV.
113 Cover Story
The Mac SE Takes Off
by Nick Baran
The newest version of the Mac SE
runs rings around its predecessor.
205
MegaMate/97
211
REVIEWS
170 Product Focus:
Smoothing Out C
by Steve Apiki
and Jon Udell
Optimizing C compilers
combine speed, high-level
convenience and low- level power.
1 8 9 A Pair of Soph isticated Laptops
by John Unger
The Zenith SupersPort 286
and Mitsubishi MP-286L
have desktop computing power
and convenient laptop size.
217
A PS/2 in Channel Only
by Mark L Van Name
The Tandy 5000 MC combines
PS/2 compatibility
with traditional PC features.
Three Assemblers for MS-DOS
by Michael Blaszczak
Borland's TASM and OPTASM
challenge the long-dominant
MASM.
Full Impact
by Diana Gabaldon
Ashton-Tate's spreadsheet
for the Mac features
presentation graphics,
dBASE IV Arrives
by Malcolm Rubel
An improvement over dBASE III
Plus in functionality, power,
and ease of use.
121
139
145
Macinations:
Hey Apple, I Need a Laptop
by Don Crabb
The time has come for
a portable Mac that doesn't
strain arms or credit lines.
OS/2 Notebook:
Electing the PM
by Mark Minasi
An inexpensive OS/2
workstation that runs
Presentation Manager,
COM1:
The ABCs ofX-, Y-,
and ZMODEM
by Brock N . Meeks
XMODEM has spawned a host
of file- transfer protocols,
and each has its merits.
Computing at Chaos Manor:
Ready Line Overload
by Jerry Pour ne lie
Jerry's COMDEX report
and more.
Applications Plus:
New Friends and Old
by Ezra Shapiro
Ezra’s friends are
Framework III, the Canon
Cat, and The Perfect Career.
Down to Business:
Getting into Bigger LANs
by Wayne Rash Jr.
As your office grows,
a traditional central
server LAN becomes
the obvious choice.
151
► 157
163
2 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
COVER PHOTOGRAPHY: PAUL AVIS © 1989
M SPECIAL SECTION:
Personal Workstations/226
IN DEPTH
226 Introduction;
Personal Workstations
229 Two Worlds Converge
by Nick Baron
The personal workstation: what
yon get when you cross a user-
friendly workstation with
a powerful personal computer.
235 The Current Crop
by Bill Nieholls
Depending on where you start
and what you spend, you can
turn your personal computer
into a workstation.
245 Worth the RISC
by Trevor Marshall
and Jane Morrill Tazelaar
The RISC chips now on the
market deliver powerful
performance at low cost.
251 How Fast Is Fast?
by Bill Kindel
The best way to predict how
well a system will perform
is to test it yourself.
255 Art + 2 Years = Science
by Phillip Robinson
Surveying the state
of the art in personal-
workstation graphics.
265 Networking with Unix
by Greg Comeau
NFS and RFS are feasible
choices for creating a shared
Unix workstation environment,
270 The Players
A guide to the companies
offering personal-
workstation products.
BYTE {ISSN 0360-5280) is puNl-shed monlhliy wilh in additional issue in
October by MeGraw-H]3lt Inc. Postmaster: Stnd addira changes, USPS
Form 35T9, flw3 fulfitlmenl cptcstLons Co BYTE SubsC r ipl iorti. P-O- Bo* 551.
Higjitstown. NJ 08520. Seand-duf pcswge paid al Peterborough* NH 0345B
and additional mailing offices. Fa stage piid Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Regislralion number 9321. Printed in the Uniied Slales of America,
Not responsible for tost manuscripts or photos. Opinions expressed by the
authors are not necessarily ihoie ofBYTE.
Copyright ® 1989 by McGraw-Hill. Inc. All righlS reserved. Trademark
registered in the United Slates P&WHI and Trademark Office.
Subscription queslions or problems should be addressed to:
BYTE Subscriber Service, P.O. Bm 55)* Hlghtstown. NJ
08520.
FEATURES
274 Digital Paper
by Dick Fountain
A new breed of wrlte-once
optical media that can store
up to a gigabyte on floppy
disk-size cartridges.
283 Turbo Pascal
Windowing System
by Charles J. Butler
TWindows lets you add
windows to all your
Turbo Pascal programs.
HANDS ON
293 Under the Hood:
Hard Disk Interfaces
by Brett Glass
The interface you pick
can dramatically affect
your system's performance.
381 Some Assembly Required:
Trees *n Keys, Part 2
by Rick Grehan
Continuing last month's
look at keyed file systems,
Rick takes a closer look
at the data file.
DEPARTMENTS
6 Editorial:
The End of Application Software?
11 Microbytes
24 Letters
33 Chaos Manor Mail
38 Ask BYTE
51 Book Reviews
347 Coming Up in BYTE
READER SERVICE
346 Editorial Index by Company
348 Alphabetical Index to Advertisers
358 I ndex to Advertisers
by Product Category
Inquiry Reply Cards: after 352
PROGRAM LISTINGS
From BIX: see 298
From BYTEnel:
call (617) 861-9764
On disk or in print:
see card after 312
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 3
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Frederic S. Langa
PUBLISHER/GROUP VICE PRESIDENT
J. Burt Totaro
OPERATIONS
Glenn Hartwig Associate Managing Edita
REVIEWS (Hardware, Software, Product Focus)
Michael Nadeau, Associate Managing Editor, Dennis Allen
Senia Technical Edita, Software, Stephen Apiki Testing
Edita, BYTE Lab, Stanford Diehl Testing Edita, BYTE Lab
NEWS AND TECHNOLOGY (Microbytes, What's New, Short Takes)
Rich Malloy Associate Managing Edita, D. Barker Senia
Edita, News and Technology, Anne Fischer Lent Senia
Edita, New Products, Andrew Reinhardt Associate News
Edita
Peterborough: Roger Adams Associate News Editor, David
Andrews Associate News Editor, Martha Hicks Associate
News Edita
west Coast: Gene Smarte Bureau Chief, Costa Mesa,
Nicholas Baran Technical Edita, San Francisco, Frank
Hayes Associate News Edita, Marlene Nesary Associate
News Edita, Jeffrey Bertolucci Editaial Assistant, San
Francisco
SENIOR TECHNICAL EDITORS
Ken Sheldon Features, Jane Morrill Tazelaar In Depth,
Richard Grehan At Large, Tom Thompson At Large
TECHNICAL EDITORS
Janet J. Barron, Janet Fiderio, Robert Mitchell, Ben Smith,
Jon Udell, Stanley Wszola
CONSULTING EDITORS
Jerry Pournelle, Ezra Shapiro, Don Crabb, Brett Glass,
Brock N. Meeks, Mark Minasi, Wayne Rash Jr.
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Jonathan Amsterdam Programming Projects, Mark
Dahmke Video, Operating Systems, Mark Haas At Large,
Rik Jadrnicek CAD, Graphics, Spreadsheets, Robert T.
Kurosaka Mathematical Recreations, Alastair J. W. Mayer
Software, Stan Miastkowski New Technology, Alan R.
Miller Languages and Engineering, Dick Pountain
Algaithms, Roger Pcwell Computers and Music, Phillip
Robinson Semiconductas, Jon Shiell High-Perfamance
Systems, George A. Stewart, Book Reviews, Ernest Tello
Artificial Intelligence
COPY EDITORS
Lauren Stickler Chief, Susan Colwell, Jeff Edmonds, Judy
Grehan, Nancy Hayes, Cathy Kingery, Margaret A.
Richard, Warren Williamson
EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS
Peggy Dunham Office Manager, Linda C. Ryan, June N.
Sheldon, Lynn Susan Valley
ART
Nancy Rice Director, Joseph A. Gallagher Assistant
Director, Jan Muller Assistant, Alan Easton Technical Artist
PRODUCTION
David R. Anderson Directa, Virginia Reardon
Senior Editaial Production Coordinata, Barbara Busenbark
Editorial Production Coordinata, Denise Chartrand Editorial
Production Coordinator, Michael J. Lonsky Editaial
Production Coordinata
TYPOGRAPHY
Sherry Fiske Systems Manager, Donna Sweeney
Applications Manager, Christa Patterson
ADVERTISING/PRODUCTION (603) 924-6448
Lisa Wozmak Directa, Lyda Clark Senia Account
Coadinata, Karen Cilley, Linda Fluhr, Jeanne Gatcombe,
Rod Holden, Wai Chiu Li Quality Control Manager, Julie
Murphree Advertising/Production Coadinata
ADMINISTRATION
Donna Nordlund, Publisher's Assistant
MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Horace T. Howland Director, Pamela Petrakos-Wilson
Promotion Manager, Wilbur S. Watson Marketing Services
Manager, Dawn Matthews Public Relations Manager, Lisa
Jo Steiner Assistant Promotion Manager, Stephanie
Warnesky Marketing Art Directa, Sharon Price Associate
Art Directa, Julie Perron Market Research Analyst
PLANNING AND RESEARCH
Michele Perron Director
Faith Kluntz Copyrights Coordinata, Cynthia Damato
Sands Reader Service Coordinator
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Philip L. Penny Directa of Finance and Services, Kenneth
A. King Business Manager, Christine Monkton Assistant,
Marilyn Parker, Diane Henry, JoAnn Walter, Jaime Huber
CIRCULATION
Dan McLaughlin Director
James Bingham Newsstand Sales Manager, Vicki Weston
Assistant Manager, Karen Desroches Distribution
Coadinata, Donna Healy, Direct Accounts Coadinata,
Louise Menegus Back Issues
PERSONNEL
Patricia Burke Personnel Coadinator, Beverly Goss
Receptionist
BUILDING SERVICES
Tony Bennett Manager, Cliff Monkton, Mark Monkton,
Agnes Perry
BYTE INFORMATION EXCHANGE
DIRECTOR
Stephen M. Laliberte
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
George Bond
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Tony Lockwood
MICROBYTES DAILY
D. Barker Coadinator, Peterbaough, Rich Malloy New
York, Gene Smarte Costa Mesa, Nicholas Baran San
Francisco, Rick Cook Phoenix, Frank Hayes San Francisco,
Jason Levitt Austin, TX, Larry Loeb Wallingfad, CT, Brock
N. Meeks La Mesa, CA, Stan Miastkowski Peterborough,
Wayne Rash Jr., Sue Rosenberg Washington, DC, David
Reed Lexington, KY
GROUP MODERATORS
David Allen Applications, Frank Boosman Artificial
Intelligence, Leroy Casterline Other, Marc Greenfield
Programming Languages, Jim Howard Graphics, Gary
Kendall Operating Systems, Steve Krenek Computers,
Brock N. Meeks Telecommunications, Barry Nance New
Technology, Donald Osgood Computers, Sue Rosenberg
Other, Jon Swanson Chips
BUSINESS AND MARKETING
Patricia Bausum Secretary, Denise A. Greene Customer
Service, Brian Warnock Customer Service, Tammy Burgess
Customer Credit and Billing
TECHNOLOGY
Clayton Lisle Directa, Business Systems Technology,
ISCO., Fred Strauss Senior Business Systems Analyst
ADVERTISING SALES
Steven M. Vito Associate Publisher,
Vice President of Marketing
Dennis J. Riley Eastern Regional Sales Manager
Sandra Foster Administrative Assistant
Jennifer L. Bartel West Coast Sales Manager, (214) 644-1 in
NEW ENGLAND
ME, NH, VT, MA, Rl, ONTARIO, CANADA &
EASTERN CANADA
John C. Moon (617) 262-1160
ATLANTIC
NY, NYC, CT, NJ (NORTH)
Leah G. Rabinowitz (212) 512-2096
Ken Tashjy (212) 512-2645
EAST
PA, KY, NJ (SOUTH), MD, W.VA,
DE, DC
Thomas J. Brun (215) 496-3833
SOUTHEAST
NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, TN, VA
Thomas H. Tolbert (404) 252-0626
MIDWEST
IL, MO, KS, IA, ND, SD, MN, Wl, NE, IN, Ml, MS, OH
(312) 751-3740
SOUTHWEST, ROCKY MOUNTAIN
CO, WY, OK, TX, AR, LA, UT
Karl Heinrich (713) 462-0757
Dan Harper, Sales Associate, (603) 924-2598
SOUTH PACIFIC
SOUTHERN CA, AZ, NM, LAS VEGAS
Jack Anderson (714) 557-6292
Tom Harvey (213) 480-5243
NORTH PACIFIC
HI, WA, OR, ID, MT, NORTHERN CA, NV (except
LAS VEGAS), WESTERN CANADA
Bill McAfee (408) 879-0371
Christine Kopec (415) 362-4600
Elisa Lister, Sales Associate, (603) 924-2598
TELEMARKETING
L. Bradley Browne Directa
Susan Boyd Administrative Assistant
SPECIAL ISSUES
Liz Coyman (603) 924-2518
BYTE BITS (2x3)
Mark Stone (603) 924-6830
THE BUYER’S MART (1x2)
Brian Higgins (603) 924-3754
REGIONAL ADVERTISING SECTIONS
Scott Gagnon (603) 924-4380
Larry Levine (603) 924-4379
Barry Echavarria (603) 924-2574
BYTE POSTCARD DECK MAILINGS
BYTE DECK
Ed Ware (603) 924-6166
COMPUTING FOR DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION
COMPUTING FOR ENGINEERS
Mary Ann Goulding (603) 924-9281
INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING SALES STAFF
See listing on page 349.
EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICE:
One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458. (603) 924-9281 .
West Coast Branch Offices: 425 Battery St.. San Francisco, CA 94111, (415) 954-9718; 3001 Red Hill Ave.,
Building #1 , Suite 222, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, (714) 557-6292.
New York Branch Editorial Office: 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020, (212) 512-3175.
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4 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
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FEBRUARY 2989 - B YTE 5
EDITORIAL ■ Fred Langa
IBM and Microsoft
have some very
interesting plans
for OS/2, PM,
and DOS
Several weeks ago, IBM invited a
handful of editors to its facility in
Hursley, England, where most of
Big Blue's work on user inter¬
faces goes on. The announced focus of
the discussions was to be Presentation
Manager (PM}, but it ended up being
considerably more than that, expanding
to encompass the entire future of OS/2.
It's a centralized, uniform future, radi¬
cally different from the DOS-based
world.
Part of the standardization derives
from the fact that PM is a piece of IBM's
Systems Application Architecture. With
PM, SAA has moved squarely into the
personal computer arena.
SAA is centered on four key concepts:
a Common User Interface, a Common
Programming Interface, Common Com¬
munications Support, and Common Ap¬
plications. {The Hursley group is respon¬
sible for the CUI.)
All this uniformity portends extreme
portability among IBM system software
and applications, from OS/2 Extended
Edition (described as 14 IBM's personal¬
ization of the generic OS/2 operating sys¬
tem”) through OS/400, and up to VM
and VME,
OS/2 EE's components already come
close to SAA standards. (Actually, be¬
cause SAA itself will evolve, it’s not a
“standard” in the strict sense of the
word; it's more a goal or a guideline,)
OS/2 will become more tightly meshed
The End
of Application
Software?
with SAA over time. For example, the
database manager portion of OS/2 EE
embodies about 90 percent of the func¬
tions of Structured Query Language
(SQL); future versions will raise that to
100 percent.
If IBM has its way, SAA standardiza¬
tion will be far-reaching: For example,
virtually all data will end up in a central
SQL repository, which all applications
will access via the built-in database man¬
ager, This way, the data generated by
any application anywhere in a system of
networked machines will become acces¬
sible by all other applications on all the
other machines, as well.
SAA’s shared data, cooperative appli¬
cations, and shared peripherals means
that— in theory— everyone using Big
Blue's software and hardware (and, one
presumes, close clones) will see a “sin¬
gle system image," Everyone has access
to everything, and everyone can work to¬
gether easily, regardless of whether
they're on a PS/2 or a 370.
IBM accepts the oft-quoted statistics
that claim that by 1991, 85 percent of all
PCs will be interconnected. IBM sees
this as an argument in favor of a central
repository— all data becomes accessible
to all machines on the network. Users
neither care nor need to know where the
data is located; the system handles it alL
Is this software fascism? Well, no; the
storing of code and data in separate files
won’t go away (especially for individual
program code). IBM’s John Soyring said
that “other types of files would be al¬
lowed” so that programs wouldn't have
to use the central repository, but that
IBM would simply “encourage” the use
of SQL facilities.
It’s interesting to note that Borland’s
not-yet- released Paradox SQL partially
fits this pattern: It can function as a front
end, or preprocessor, that automatically
generates SQL queries to access remote,
centralized data. As such, it may be a
bellwether for a new kind of application
program that well be seeing a lot more
of: one in which a vendor carves a niche
for a product with added-value special
features (like a superior query-by -exam¬
ple facility), but relies on standardized
system resources (Hke a central SQL data
store) when they're available.
Under PM, the standardized resources
can also include the user interface, com¬
munications, and more. It may sound
somewhat Mac-like, but under IBM's
scheme, the commonality is much wider,
extending even across architectures and
operating systems.
This is a far cry from the state of DOS
applications today, where programmers
often continuously reinvent the wheel:
Each application may have its own little
presentation manager, its own little com¬
munications manager, and so on. With
these major pieces standardized and
readily available at all levels throughout a
business, applications programming be¬
comes simpler. Soyring puts it this way:
“Programming will become macro writ¬
ing.” Programmers won't have to spend
time developing the raw materials of
their applications; instead, they “can
concentrate on pure functionality, and
their productivity will increase."
The thought was echoed by Micro¬
soft's Steve Ballmer. Because of PM's
object orientation, “Applications will
become objects,” he said, “and they’ll
simply call other applications to use their
services. Programming will just be writ¬
ing scripts in an external control lan¬
guage to use the various objects." If thal
happens, it will be the end of stand-alone
applications as we now know them.
Except under DOS, Next month. 111
talk about IBM's and Microsoft's plans
for DOS, and their plans for Unix and an
803 8 6- specific version of OS/2.
— Fred Langa
Editor in Chief
(BIX name “ftanga”)
6 BYTE - FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 109 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS; 110 j
INTERACTIVE
A KODAK COMPANY
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Installed in minutes, the Renegade 386" motherboard turns any
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Simply replace the “motherboard” of your present sys¬
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That’s thousands of dollars less than a new IBM System/2
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But it gives you more than just the latest industry stan¬
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You can use your present 16-bit peripherals. (If you’ve
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But with Renegade 386™ you’ll have to find some other
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The Renegade 386™
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other applications running side-by- by Hauppauge Computer
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Thanks to Renegade’s 80386 microprocessor your com¬
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Your “new” computer also will now have 1 Megabyte
of 100ns RAM. This is not a naked board. And it also includes
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8 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
ffl
1 — ’
fcnegade technologeb 1
In practical terms that simply means that programs like
Lotus 1-2-3 or new products like Foxbase 386, and almost any¬
thing else, will run faster than anything you have ever seen.
Which is a minor problem for some folks who are playing
computer games on company time. Renegade 386™ may run
them at speeds far too fast for human reactions.
The world is not perfect.
Otherwise Renegade
386™ is perfectly com¬
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like AutoCAD, Aldus
PageMaker, Microsoft Win¬
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the Novell Network and siz-
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Power hungry? Equip Renegade 386'v with
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There’s a lot of confusion in computer claims, but the
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So plug in Renegade™ expansion modules in 2-and
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Faster, easier presentation graphics
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386 MotherBoard for the PC or PC/XT . S1695
386 MotherBoard for the PC/AT . S1795
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32-bit RAM Board (2Mbyte installed; up to 10 Mbyte) 51195
16 MHz 80387 math coprocessor . 5695
16-bit combination hard disk/floppy disk controller 5245
Prices subject id change.
30 DAY TRIAL OFFER
AND OUR
NO-RISK GUARANTEE
We understand perfectly that you have no reason
to believe anything you read. Including this ad. (We
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So we invite you to evaluate the Renegade 386™
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cleai' instructions. Use it in your own system, on your
own work, for 30 days. TVy it for brilliant presentation
graphics, make massive and instant spreadsheet recal¬
culation, run huge memory-hungry CAD programs.
Wring it out —on anything your software is up to.
But don’t stop there. Challenge your best com¬
puter technician. Or a consultant whose opinion you
value. Ask them to compare Renegade 386™ dollar for
dollar, and feature for feature, with the best on the
market.
After 30 days, if it isn’t for you, for any reason,
we’ll take it back and write you a check immediately
for your full purchase price.
The risk is ail ours. But we urge you not to wait.
RAM chip prices are going up every day due to world¬
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Call toll-free today. You have nothing
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1-800426-2189
HenEEadB
TECHNOLOGIES
Redmond, Washington USA
(206)885-5700
IBM PC, AT, XT, Personal System/2, Microsoft Windows 386, Foxbase 386,
Paradox 386, PageMaker, 1-2-3, Novell Network, Ventura Publisher, EGA, Intel,
Hauppauge, Compaq and other brands and products are trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Circle 199 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 • BYTE 9
* %
WINDOWS FOR DATA® 5
0#*
Invoices: Create Review Print Exit
ue^fPV^5
pop
& J
I N U 0 I C E — - - - -
Invoice No*: 008764 Date:
Search for customer record? (V/N):
Ed ter customer information? (V/N):
Enter hilling address? CV/NK
Enter marketing information? (V/N):
12/03/87
r us toner
18:43:15
Uillian Jones
Innovative Software
351 Bulletin Avenue
Needhan* HA 02194
(617) 394-5512
No.
PRODUCT
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DESCRIPTION
QUANT I TV
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5
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Microbytes
Staff written highlights of developments in technology and the microcomputer industry,
compiled from Microbytes Daily and BYTEweek reports
Mead’s Silicon Retina Points Toward Brain-Like Processing
Carver Mead and asso¬
ciates have developed
what could be a true inno-
vation in computer technol¬
ogy: analog emulation of
the human nervous system.
Mead, who is credited with
major contributions to IC de¬
sign and very -large-scale-
integration (VLSI) technol¬
ogy, said construction in
silicon of an information pro¬
cessing system similar to
the brain is well under way.
Mead and his collabora¬
tors at Synaptics (San Jose,
CA) have designed a model
of a “small but identifiable
processor the human
brain”; they call it the Sili¬
con Retina. The Silicon
Retina consists of a 3- by 4-
inch board of analog cir¬
cuitry connected to a camera
lens; it performs the same
visual processing as the
human retina. The main
chip on the board is manufac¬
tured by Synaptics and con¬
sists of an array of photo sen¬
sors that emulate the photo
receptors of the human eye.
An external object passed
across the lens is processed
by the analog array proces¬
sor, and the image is dis¬
played on a standard Multi¬
sync video monitor. In a
demonstration at San Fran¬
Ever since the 1 986 dis¬
covery of ceramic super-
conduc tors, p rom i ses of
their potential have flowrn
faster than greased elec¬
trons, The media has
brimmed over with stories
of super fa st computers and
magnetic-levitation trains,
even while scientists have
cautioned that such applica-
cisco’s ExpJoratorium sci¬
ence museum, the image
processor was able to accu¬
rately display images of the
human hand and other ob¬
jects passed across the lens.
The basic function of an¬
imal vision is accomplished
by photo receptors that
compute t he average of the
local light intensity and
compare this value to the
value of the incoming light
intensity fro,.i the external
source. The differential of
these values is sent as a sig¬
nal to the optical nerve, re¬
sulting in identification of the
external object. The array-
processing chip in the Silicon
Retina performs a similar
function. Mead said that the
Silicon Retina represents a
“gain control mechanism”
for the processing oflight
signals. It uses a concept
called edge enhancement to
determine the difference in
light intensity of the edges
of an object in comparison to
a uniform background
lighting.
Although the Silicon Ret¬
ina is an impressive example
of the power of analog pro¬
cessing, there are still major
obstacles to the design of
commercially viable systems.
According to Mead, analog
tions are many years away.
But now researchers at MIT
have overcome a major im¬
pediment to the commer¬
cialization of superconduc¬
tors— their inherent
brittleness.
By mixing noble metals,
such as silver, gold, plati¬
num, or palladium, into the
ceramic material* research¬
processing can achieve
" 100,000 times the effi¬
ciency of digital computing”
but is constrained by the
lack of uniformity in present-
day transistors. Mead said
that the human brain is faced
with the same problem but
gets around it by adapting or
adjusting to the inconsis¬
tency of the nervous system .
This adaptation is accom¬
plished by “averaging” the
values of incoming signals.
Accomplishing equivalent
adaptation in silicon is ob¬
viously a major challenge.
Still, Mead predicted that
neural technology will even¬
tually have as significant an
impact on human culture as
the present-day digital com¬
puter. Mead donated a work¬
ing model of his Silicon
Retina to the museum.
According to an engineer
at Synaptics, the company
hopes to have a commercial
version of the Silicon Retina
ready in about a year. Said
Synaptics engineer Tim Al¬
len, “We've proven that it
[the Silicon Retina] works in
principle. Now we have to
make it fast and cheap,” Al¬
len thinks the hard part is
over. The next phase just re¬
quires some basic “semi¬
conductor engineering,”
ers have for the first time
been able to create flexible
superconductors that can be
pressed into sheets or rolled
into coils. “Without modi¬
fication, the mechanical
properties of superconduc¬
tors render them about as
flexible as dry spaghetti,”
said Gregory J. Yurek, an
continued
NANOBYTES
* Keep an eye out for
embedded processors
from Intel and Ad¬
vanced Micro Devices
the next time you buy a
new toaster or a new car.
Asked why Intel's
80960 is targeted only at
embedded applications,
Intel chip designer Steve
McGeady said, sTd
rather put an 80960 in
every antiskid braking
system than in every Sun
workstation.” AMD’s
Mike Johnson said that
although the AMD
29000 would be perfectly
suitable for the general-
purpose Unix market,
there’s “simply not
enough potential volume,
despite all the excite¬
ment.” Johnson conceded
that AMD can’t com¬
pete in the general-pur¬
pose processor market,
but he also noted that em¬
bedded processors con¬
stitute a “billion-dollar
market.”
* At the Microproces¬
sors ’89 symposium, Mo¬
torola's Mitch Alsup de¬
livered one of the more
refreshing comments on
multiprocessing archi¬
tectures. “No one is
quite sure how it's going
to work,” he said* Uni¬
versity of Michigan pro¬
fessor Yale Patt pointed
out that a big unanswered
question involves getting
“a large number of pro¬
cessors working in
shared memory.” The
feeling at the conference
was that multiprocessing
architectures probably
won't hit the market until
the mid-1990s.
* Sun Microsystems'
continued
Flexible Superconductors Will Shape PC Boards,
Power Supplies
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 11
MTCROBYTES
NANOBYTES
Dave Ditzel proclaimed
SunJs SPARC processor
as the de facto standard
for reduced^ instruction-
set-computer (RISC) pro¬
cessors, and chip-de-
si gner-turned-i ndustry-
critic Nick Tredennick
countered that Intel
would produce more
80386s between coffee
break and lunch than
Sun would make SPARC
processors in an entire
year,
* The only legal Mac-
intosh done available in
the U,S. is an Atari ST
that uses Mac ROMs,
Previously, these ST-
based clones have been
limited to 64K-byte
ROMs; a new version,
called the Spectre 128,
uses 128K-byte ROMs
and is said to run any¬
thing that will run on the
Mac II (monochrome
only) and virtually all
Mac Plus and SE soft¬
ware, including the usual
suspects: HyperCard,
Adobe Illustrator, and
PageMaker. Spectre 128
retails for $ 179.95, and
it comes from Gadgets
by Small (Littleton, CO),
without the Mac ROMs
(you have to get those
from other sources).
Gadgets by Small is
the new company of
David Small, who de¬
veloped the famous
Magic Sac Macintosh
emulator.
* Despite ongoing-
well, rampant“specula-
tion about a new laptop
from Apple Computer,
Apple’s John Sculley
says the company’s plans
for a laptop are still
hampered by inadequate
screen technology. “I
wish we had it now,”
Sculley said recently,
but he added that a laptop
is not a big part of
Apple’s plans for 1989.
Sculley said the main
continued
MIT professor and founder
of American Superconductor
Corp. (Cambridge, MA),
which has been set up by the
MIT scientists to handle
commercial aspects of the
new material ” A compos¬
ite material obviously sacri¬
fices some conductivity,
but in exchange you can actu¬
ally use the superconduc¬
tors for something useful.”
In addition, he said, the
composite material is more
resistant to oxidation and
can be connected more easily
than before to electrical
sources.
The applications for the
more malleable material are
still at least 5 years off,
Yurek said, but they may in¬
clude tiny motors, satellite
sen s i ng dev ices , e le c t rom ag -
netic shields for computer
power supplies, and printed
circuit boards, “Supercon¬
ductors form a better shield
against electromagnetic ra¬
diation, all the way from low-
frequency DC up to very
high frequencies,” he said.
Flexible superconductors
could be shaped into inter¬
connects or traces on
printed circuit boards that
would be faster and lose
less power than current de¬
signs, Yurek envisions ac¬
tive components, such as
chips, made with super¬
conductors.
Yurek anticipates no big
problems introducing such
supercooled fluids as liquid
nitrogen into computers,
which would be necessary
to bring the ceramics down to
the -300° FahrenheiUhey
need to conduct. “Some
supercomputers are already
cooled by liquid nitrogen,”
he said, “Now the trick is
to get that capability onto the
desktop."
“There's no question this
development could have quite
an impact on computing,”
Yurek said, “but it’s a long
way down the road,”
BASIC Will Be the ‘‘Embedded Language”
of Microsoft Applications
Microsoft has “learned
its lesson from its Mac
experience” and wants to
provide a development envi¬
ronment that mimics the de¬
livery environment, says
Greg Lobdell, the com¬
pany’s product manager for
languages. Therefore, the
shell for any future object-
oriented programming
(OOP) development systems
is likely to be Presentation
Manager. Inside that shell,
the 18 or so OOP building
blocks will call routines writ¬
ten in BASIC— not C.
Why BASIC? Current
versions are very fast, says
Lobdell, and applications
built out of OOP tools are
likely to be heavily oriented
toward transaction process¬
ing. BASIC’s string-
handling capabilities will be
an advantage in mixed text-
and-integer applications,
claims Lobdell Moreover,
BASIC is more “natural,” or
English-like, than C or Pas¬
cal, he says. “BASIC will
evolve to be the embedded
language of Microsoft’s
applications.”
Ideally, any OOP lan¬
guage products would, like
other Microsoft language
products, have “inter¬
language support”— that is,
any language could call rou¬
tines from any other lan¬
guage to ensure a rich appli¬
cation development
environment. In the long
term, Microsoft wants to
provide a set of object-ori¬
ented building blocks, the
functional equivalent of
NeXTStep’s 38 basic OOP
routines to handle dialog
boxes, menus, and so on.
CISC or RISC, Chips Are Becoming More Alike
Bring together some of
the designers who
worked on the computer in¬
dustry’s major microproces¬
sors, and chances are
they’ll each have a different
opinion about which micro¬
processor is the best. At a re¬
cent conference sponsored
by the Microprocessor Report
newsletter, we heard propo¬
nents oflntel, Motorola, Sun,
Advanced Micro Devices,
and MIPS Computer extol
their favorite chips and ar¬
chitectures. But one thing
they all seemed to agree on
is that microprocessors are in
some ways becoming more
and more alike.
“CISC processors are be¬
coming more RISC -like, and
RISC processors are be¬
coming more CISC-Like,”
said Motorola’s Russell
Stanphill. In the next few
years, implementations of
com plex -instruct ion - set-corn -
puter chips and reduced-in¬
struction-set-computer chips
will become much more
similar, predicted Michael
Slater, who edits the Micro¬
processor Report and orga¬
nized the conference.
The designers generally
agreed that within the next
few years, all the major
microprocessors will have
cache, floating-point, and
memory management units
built in, and they’ll incor¬
porate features like register
scoreboarding and separate
data and instruction paths.
But the chip designers
said they’re concerned about
the limitations of perfor¬
mance that confront single¬
processor architectures. In
continued
12 BYTE' FEBRUARY 1989
To learn Microsoft
QuickBASIC,
}ai only need a
manual this thick.
You’re looking at something you won’t see
anywhere else.
It’s called QB Advisor. A remarkable new
hypertext electronic manual that can make you
instantly more productive, even if you don’t know
the first thing about programming QB Advisor
actually lets you experiment by cutting and past¬
ing useful sample programs right into your pro¬
gramming window. Only Microsoft has it Only
Microsoft could. And it's just one of the things you’ll
leam about new Microsoft® QuickBASIC version 4.5
for IBM® PCs and compatibles.
Another is the step-by-step tutorial that actu¬
ally takes you through every stage of programming
by working you through a complete program.
And QB Express— the interactive way to
leam all about your programming environment in
a matter of minutes— not hours.
Microsoft QuickBASIC also comes with
Easy Menus that let you develop programs with
Mkxceoft.Quidt BASIC
a minimum number of menu choices. Context-
sensitive Help for immediate help with error
messages and variables by simply punching a key,
or clickinga mouse. Andabuilt-
in debugger that lets you see
exactly what your program is
doing, as ifs doing it
Best of all, Microsoft Quick¬
BASIC is packed with enough
power to handle whatever prob¬
lems drove you to program¬
ming in the first place. Fact is,
it translates your program into executable code at
an incredible 150,000 lines per minute.
Microsoft QuickBASIC version 45. If program¬
ming is the only way out, this is the easiest way in.
Microsoft
Making it all make sense:
For more information call (800) 541-1261, Customers in Canada, call (416) 673-7638, Outside North America, call (206) 882-8661. © Copyright 1989 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft
and the Microsoft logo are registered trademarks and Making it all make sense is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation,
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 13
MICROBYTES
NANOBYTES
problem with current lap'
top displays is that they
can't handle mouse oper¬
ations adequately. Ac¬
cording to Sculley, the
mouse pointer “disap¬
pears" when you drag it
quickly across the
screen. Sculley said he
“hopes to see a laptop
in 1989, though not in
quantity.1' Apple is
looking at active matrix
displays as one possibil¬
ity, we hear.
* For those who missed
the news, the U.S. now
has an official under¬
secretary for tech not*
ogy. It's a new position
in the Commerce Depart¬
ment, responsible for
the department's new
Technology Administra¬
tion. “The undersecretary
for technology will
serve as a strategic cata¬
lyst to promote the use
of science and technology
by industry and entre¬
preneurs/1 said an offi¬
cial statement from
Washington.
* The industry will be
able to use the help, if
things shape up the way
the American Electron¬
ics Association pre¬
dicted in a recent release.
If the U.S. doesn't play
a strong role in the high-
definition TV (HDTV)
market, there'll be a
“ripple effect'1 that will
cause the country to lose
“significant" world
market share in personal
computers and semicon¬
ductors, The report warns
that the country's cur¬
rent 70 percent share of
the world personal com¬
puter market could dwin¬
dle by the year 2010 to
half that if the nation's
electronics companies
don't take the lead in
HDTV.
* Citing “misrepresen¬
tation of facts surround¬
ing the issue of com-
con firmed
spite of Dave Ditzel's glow¬
ing prediction that Sun will
be the first company to offer
a RISC chip with 4-nano¬
second cycle times, the big
question is how to supply
memory subsystems that are
fast enough for these high¬
speed processors. As Intel's
Steve McGeady put it,
“Talking about 4-ns cycle
time is fun, but who's go¬
ing to sel I you memory for
that?" Motorola's Mitch
omputers and elect ron-
ic communications will
play a fundamental part in
the new International Foun¬
dation for the Survival and
Development of Humanity,
an ominously named group
of scholars and scientists ad¬
dressing such ominous
global problems as environ¬
mental pollution, nuclear
disarmament, and abuses of
human rights. The founda¬
tion has an impressive list of
members, including Soviet
physicist Andrei Sakharov
and the former President of
MIT, Jerome Wiesner.
At a press conference
sponsored by Apple Com¬
puter, members of the foun¬
dation discussed electronic
conferencing and communi¬
cations as a means of improv¬
ing relations between the
U.S. and the USSR, (Apple
has donated computers to
the group, and Apple CEO
NMB Technologies
(Chatsworth, CA) says it
has developed the “world's
first" 60-nanosecond 1-
megabit dynamic RAM
chip. Although other manu¬
facturers are soon to fol¬
low, NMB's AAA1M200 is
the first formally an¬
nounced l -megabit DRAM
with a minimum access
time of 60 ns. Currently avail-
Alsup agreed that the biggest
challenge is designing
memory and processor I/O
that can keep up with cycle
times of less than 10 ns.
Professor Yale Patt of the
University of Mich igan said
object-oriented data models
may be part of the answer to
increasing memory band¬
width. He also argued that
simply adding bigger
caches and multilevel caches
is not the answer. Addition-
John Sculley is on its board
of directors.)
The foundation, which
has offices in Moscow,
Stockholm, and Washing¬
ton, DC, is raising money
and accepting project pro¬
posals. One project proposed
already is an electronic
communications system be¬
tween the U.S. Congress
and the Supreme Soviet, the
primary legislative body in
the USSR. Another project
involves the expansion of a
U.S. -Soviet computer train¬
ing camp for children.
With members from all
over the world, the founda¬
tion will use an electronic
conferencing system to con¬
duct its activities. Com¬
puters will also be used for
projects involving the cob
lection of environmental data
relating to acid rain, the
“greenhouse effect," and
other forms of pollution.
able l -megabit DRAMs have
access limes ranging from 80
ns to 125 ns.
The new DRAMs are
targeted for high-perfor¬
mance 32-bit processors op¬
erating at 16 MHz or higher.
Most 32- bit machines oper¬
ating at 20 MHz or higher re¬
quire at least one wait state
to compensate for the speed
of currently available
al caches become slow and
complex, Patt said. He out¬
lined a new model for micro¬
processor design that intro¬
duces new concepts for
instruction control and data
execution, including “wide
words" and node tables for
storing and predicting the in¬
struction stream. Patt de¬
scribed the concept as “pipe¬
lining with rest areas.
You're only on the highway
when you're working."
Sakharov expressed frus¬
tration at the group’s slow
progress thus far. Speaking
at Apple's press conference
via satellite, Sakharov said
he has a “cautious attitude"
toward the foundation; it
has been “mainly talk" so
far, he said. Wiesner,
though, responded that now
that the foundation has been
officially sanctioned in the
USSR, it will start to ag¬
gressively solicit projects.
The foundation hopes to
sponsor about 10 projects per
year. It encourages project
proposals that involve inter-
n at ion a 1 coope rat ion , p a r-
Ocularly between the U.S.
and the USSR. For infor¬
mation on submitting project
proposals or contributions,
you can write to the Interna¬
tional Foundation for the
Survival and Development of
Humanity at 109 11th St.
SE, Washington, DC 20003.
DRAMs. The 60-ns DRAM
will allow manufacturers to
eliminate wait states and also
complex memory interleav¬
ing and caching schemes, an
NMB spokesperson
claimed.
The company said it will
start shipping the high-speed
DRAMs in volume in the
second quarter of this year. It
continued
Computers, Communications Play Role
in New Global Foundation
NMB’s 1 -megabit DRAM Chip Claims Top Speed
14 BYTE - FEBRUARY 1939
Y)u ll never know
how quick it is until
you open it up and see
what it can do.
New Microsoft QuickC 2.0. Zero to expert in record time.
All the horsepower in the world
is useless until you can get at it.
Introducing new Microsoft®
QuickC® version 2.0. The fastest,
easiest way to master all the power
and glory of C. Frankly nobody but
Microsoft packs this many exclu¬
sive features into a single package:
For starters, theres QC Advisor
—a new hypertext electronic man¬
ual that teaches, helps and guides
you on screen. It even lets you cut
and paste sample programs, so you
can learn C the easy way.
By example.
And “C For Yourself” our detailed book
of C fundamentals that’ll give you more
in-depth programming lessons. You’ll find
one in every box.
With Microsoft QuickC, you can ease
into C with Easy Menus to help you write
your first C programs, then advance to Full
Menus to access the full-throttle potential
of C. You'll be up to speed in no time.
And speaking of speed, QuickC has
enough muscle for incremental compiling
and linking at an incredible 25,000 lines per
minute— so it’ll make short work of any de¬
velopment you have in mind.
And speaking of development, its in-line
assembler lets you write assembly code
within your C code for more efficient pro¬
grams. Plus it’s the only integrated debug¬
ger that lets you simultaneously debug C
and your in-line assembler. Talk about
convenience. It even supports all memory
models within the integrated environment.
For all the details, call us at (800) 541-
1261.The new Microsoft QuickC.
Get it. And break a few speed limits.
Micmsoft
Making it all make sense:
Customers in Canada, call (416)673-7638. Outside North America, cal! (206 1 SS2-86G1. ©Copyright 1989 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved, Microsoft, the Microsoft logo and QuickC are registered
trademarks and Making it all make sense is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 15
MICROBYTES
NANOBYTES
puter viruses/' The
Software Publishers
Association has formed a
special-interest group to
deal with the security
issues raised by elec¬
tronic diseases. The SIG
hopes to serve as an
“objective forum” for ex¬
changing information
relating to viruses, Time
Bombs, Trojan Horses,
worms, and vaccines. If
interested, phone the
Software Security SIG at
(202) 452-1600.
* Although American
Megatrends (Atlanta,
GA) says its new 80386
motherboard is designed
for 33-MHz compo¬
nents, the unit we saw re¬
cently has a 25-MHz
80386 inside running at
33 MHz. The system
continued
could mean the start of
fierce competition among
DRAM manufacturers to
offer higher-speed memory
chips, which will be needed
After losing shelf space
at software retail stores
and failing to attract a big¬
ger base of users, producers
of entertainment software
are hoping that optical drives
will result in dazzling pro¬
grams and hence increased
interest in games and other
nonbusiness (Le., fun) pro¬
grams. The customer base
so far has consisted mainly of
men and boys between 12
and 45. Several hundred
companies used to make
computer games, but many
have gone out of business or
seen sales decline.
Some of the survivors of
to keep up with the ever-
faster processors in ever-
faster workstations. NMB
Technologies is an Ameri¬
can arm of the Japanese elec-
the entertainment software
business were on a panel at
a conference in San Francis¬
co recently, including Elec¬
tronic Arts, EPYX, Media-
genic (formerly Activision),
and Spectrum Holobyte, The
main theme of their discus¬
sion was that today's per¬
sonal computers are too
primitive to run the kinds of
games that would attract a
broad consumer base for en¬
tertainment software. Trip
Hawkins of Electronic A rts
pointed out that the most
popular games machine these
days is a cheap IBM PC
clone, which has replaced the
ironies manufacturer Mine-
bea Co. of Tokyo. Minebea
also makes keyboards,
power supplies, and minia¬
ture precision bearings.
Commodore 64 as the home
computer of choice . But the
bare-bones PC clone with
CGA-resolution monitor isn't
“friendly enough” for the
mass market. Hawkins said
that the entertainment mar¬
ket is still a market for
“hobbyists.”
The big hope for the en¬
tertainment software busi¬
ness is the proliferation of
optical drives and media,
such as CD-ROM and simi¬
lar technologies. CD-ROM
will allow entertainment
software developers to put
megabytes of data on a sin-
continued
Optical Drives Could Boost Entertainment Software
Protect the one you love
Yours is not just any computer. It’s your
friend. Your confidant, "four business partner.
You wouldn’t be without it
But it can happen in a flash. A sudden
storm, distant ditch digger, motor, or even
a toy metallic balloon can send data-killing,
component-killing electric surges and sags
smack into your computer. Even knock it
out altogether
It’s a matter of time before this happens
to you. So protect your friend with Emerson’s
new low-cost SW1000 Uninterruptible Power
System. Only 2% in. high, it fits smartly right
under your PC’s monitor for less than $700.
In a brownout or blackout, a battery will
instantly take over giving you ten minutes or
more to shut down your computer.
Call 1-800-
Back-UPS for the
Emerson dealer
nearest you.
Before it’s too late.
m
l=MI=R5DN
Computer Power
Computers Won’t Run Right
On The Wrong Fuel.
Circle 85 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS; Si f)
The easy way to move files between the 5 */4 " world of PCs, and the
3V2" world of PS/2s, Laptops, and 386s: Sysgen’s Bridge family.
Because your PCs, PS/2s, 386 s and
laptops all talk to different floppy disk
sizes and formats, they can become
frustrating islands of information.
For the simplest way to get files back
and forth Just install Sysgen’s Bridge
products. Presto: Your different com¬
puters can talk to common diskettes.
Sysgen pioneered bridges. Now here
are three ways to simplify your life in
a multi-computer office.
Solution 1: Our
Bridge-File 5.25
floppy disk drive.
A best seller, with over
50,000 installed. Attach it to your PS/2,
and you can read and write files from
PCs. Critics and users alike have raved
about its small footprint, ease of use,
and dual density capacity of 360Kb
and L2Mb. (IBIVTs drive is twice
the size, yet stores only one-fourth
the data.)
Every PS/2 user deserves this easy
connection to the world of PCs.
Solution 2: Our Bridge-File 3.5
floppy disk drive.
You get 720Kb
and 1.44Mb capacities.
Connect it to any
PC, and you can read
and write files from
PS/2s, 386s, laptops, and other
3 Wr machines.
Now all your PCs can share files
with your newer systems.
And here’s the ideal controller:
The Omni-Bridge
Controller.
Trademarks! Sysgen, Bridge-File, Omni- Bridge
■ * ■ 1c IBM- '
Registered Trademark; l
-Sysgen Inc.; PS/2— International Business Machines Corporation,
nessMai
■International Business Machines Corporation.
Circle 226 on Reader Service Card
Controls up to four
drives, so you can mix
and match 5W" 3 and
floppy tape drives as you need. This
hot card gives you big storage, plus
twice the floppy disk and floppy tape
transfer performance rates! At only
$95, this is a winner.
Get your computers talking.
Call the Sysgen Hotline for the
name of your nearest dealer.
1-800-821-2151.
SYSGEN
INCORPORATED
556 Gibraltar Drive, Milpitas, CA 95035
FEBRUARY 1989 'BYTE 17
MICROBYTES
NANO BYTES
has support for 8 mega¬
bytes of 60-nanosecond
dynamic RAM on the
motherboard, and a 32-
bit expansion slot for up
to 8 megabytes more.
The product's designers
went with 4 megabytes
of single in-line memory
modules and 4 mega¬
bytes of standard DIP
memory because they
weren't sure which would
be most hit by a short¬
age, AMI officials said
they weren't sure when
they'll be able to get
Intel -certified 33-MHz
80386s,
■ Some optical storage
companies have banded
to back the Continuous
Composite Servo (CCS)
recording format for
5 U -inch erasable optical
continued
gie disk and thus create more
complex and dynamic
games, But you need faster
performance than current
CD-ROM technology pro¬
vides to make games per-
While forecasts call for
increased use of Unix
and OS/2, in the future ac¬
cording to Peter Norton, MS-
DOS "‘goes on forever,"
Norton, of self-named Util¬
ities fame, said in an inter¬
view with BYTEweek that he
foresees the hordes of PC
users eventually falling into
three camps— “OS/2,
High- DOS, and Low-DOS."
Norton equated High- DOS
users with today’s "power
users," There will be a
huge market of "Low-DOS"
users, he said, with 80286-
based machines becoming
form well. Optical storage in
the 1990s could provide the
breakthrough needed for en¬
tertainment software to
take off again. In the mean¬
time, the survivors are
the low-end standard.
And what does the com¬
pany president/ writer/ in¬
dustry celebrity think of
OS/2? It's “a necessary
evil," Norton said, "be¬
cause it’s both necessary and
evil." He sees OS/2 being
accepted mainly by "MIS
types" in large corporations
who want multitasking func¬
tions, “Unix-like features
without throwing away
DOS." Norton sees "nifty
stuff coming eventually for
the OS/2 environment. The
RAM shortage put OS/2
back "2 to 3 years"; other¬
faced with a resurgence of
competition from Japan and
Europe. As Hawkins said,
"there's an increase in
product supply without an
increase in demand."
wise, many users would have
installed 2 to 4 megabytes
of R AM by now and would
have had the opportunity to
"play" with memory-hungry
OS/2, he said. As it stands
now, "only the damn serious
can afford to run OS/2, and
the payoff isn't there yet."
Norton predicted that
many of those "nifty" OS/2
applications will get "con¬
verted and crammed back
into the MS-DOS environ¬
ment," although he added
that those conversions will
be a “painful process,"
continued
Even on a Cloudy Day, Norton Can See DOS Forever
Wherever your business takes you, take along
the WorldPorl 2400™ Portable Modem, Leaving
the office doesn't have to mean leaving behind
the world of high-speed, 2400 bps communica¬
tions, Worldwide, in virtually every^ situation,
including hotel rooms and phone booths, your
ability to communicate clearly and efficiently
remains intact.
Representing die cutting edge of modem tech¬
nology; the WorldPort line of portable modems
combine a broad range of features that bring
you the best value in modems today, Features
that go far beyond costly Internal units, such as
bell and CCITT standards, direct connect and
acoustic interface (300 and 1200 bps), battery
power, shirt pocket size, and a liny price.
In fact, the WorldPort modems are the ultimate
for both portable and desktop applications. And
the WorldPort 2400 comes with Carbon Copy
PLUS™ communications software, for even
greater value.
If you want a modem that works where you do,
put the WorldPort Series to work for you. In
the office. On the road. Or at home. For more
information about our full line of WorldPort
modems, or the name of your nearest dealer,
call us at 800-541-0345. (In New York, 5 lb-
261 -(1423.)
Touchbase Systems, Inc,
160 Laurel Avenue
Morlbport, NY 11768
(51G) 261-0423
TELEX: 6502646020
FAX: [516)754-3491
WorldFon 2400 Is a trademark ol Tbuchbase? Systems, Inc Carbon Ccpy PLUS Is a trademark oi Meridian Technology, Inc,
18 BYTE * FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 234 on Reader Service Card
THE BUS STOPS HERE!
CompuStar: PS/2 and PC/AT Compatibility.
Ask any computer expert about
what type of system you should buy
nowadays and you’ll likely get a
“pass the bus” response. Something
like - “Well, uh, the PC/AT* bus
is your best buy but, then again, the
new PS/2* bus may become the
next industry standard.” Great ad¬
vice, right? If trying to decide on a
microprocessor weren’t tough
enough, now you’re expected to
pick a bus, too.
RELAX, NOW THERE'S
compustar;
The all new CompuStar from
Wells American not only lets you
interchange microprocessors, you
can also mjx and match buses — a
PC/AT bus, a PS/2 bus or. . .both.
As your computing needs change,
simply snap in a new processor
or add an extra bus. You’ll
never again have to worry about buying
the wrong computer system!
FOUR COMPLETE SYSTEMS IN ONE.
The CompuStar can be configured with any of four
microprocessors — an 8086, an 80286, an 80386SX, or
an 80386. The processor and up to 16 megabytes of user
memory have all been combined, using the latest VLSI tech¬
nology, on a single, plug-in CPU module. Plus, any time
during the first year of ownership, CompuStar users can
“trade-in” the CPU module they initially selected toward the
purchase of any of the other more
CdTIHlSUf
powerful modules. Nobody but Wells
American gives you this kind of value.
A CONVERTIBLE BUS?
YOU’RE KIDDING!
No, we’re not. In fact, it may well
be the most practical microcomputer
innovation ever. Say you’ve selected an
AT compatible CompuStar and later
want to add PS/2 compatibility. No
problem! Snap in a PS/2 Bus and
Adapter Module and you can use both
buses in the same system. Likewise,
if you’ve selected a PS/2 compatible
CompuStar and decide you want to add
an AT bus, just snap in an AT Bus
Module. Depending on configura¬
tion, the ConipuStar can have up to
13 bus expansion slots — all AT
slots, all PS/2 slots or a “split-
bus” of AT and PS/2 slots. No
matter which bus becomes the
next industry “standard,” you’ll have peace of mind knowing
your investment in a CompuStar will be protected.
The CompuStar is also easily expanded. That’s because
there are seven CompuSiar disk/tape compartments — six
accessible from the front and an additional full-height bay
inside. All this in a sleek, compact tower design that will
leave more room on your desktop than any of the so-called
“desktop" models.
A NEW IDEA FROM AN OLD COMPANY.
The ConipuStar"' Multi-Processor, Convertible BusIM
Microcomputer. It’s no surprise that our engineers invent¬
ed it. After all, we’ve been making microcomputers longer
than anyone else. . .even longer than IBM! And if that kind
of experience doesn’t impress you, CompuStar’s service pro¬
grams surely will. You can select an optional overnight mod¬
ule swap-out plan or on-site service from General Electric Cor¬
poration — one of the most respected names in consumer
electronics. And, of course, every ConipuStar carries a full
one-year factory warranty.
FINALLY, AFFORDABLE TECHNOLOGY.
Think all this technology sounds expensive? It’s not.
Thanks to CompuStar’s modular architecture, you pay only
lor the technology you need — and only when you need it.
Plus, there is a
wide variety of
CompuStar
display, tape
and disk op¬
tions including
a one gigabyte i
erasable opti- <
cal disk. You
can choose a
factory pre¬
configured
CompuStar or
custom design
one yourself.
Just unlock the
front panel and
literally “snap-
in” a bus, CPU, memory or disk module in a matter of
seconds. It’s system flexibility never before available. , .
at any price.
While one of our competitors (we won’t mention any
names) threatens you with “missing the bus,” most simply
pass the bus. Our new CompuStar, however, eliminates the
bus problem altogether. Not to mention the processor prob¬
lem. Even the expansion problem. Prove it to yourself. Call
today about our 31-day trial offer. Oh, and by the way, the
next time anyone asks, tell ’em you know where the bus stops.
Wells American
Corporate Headquarters: 3243 Sunset Boulevard
West Columbia, South Carolina 29169 • 803/796-7800
TWX5 10-601-2645 - FAX S03/796-7029
■personal Compute; AT. AT and PS/2 are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation
Circle 247 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 19
MICROBYTES
NANOBYTES
disk cartridges. Sup¬
porting CCS, currently
before ANSI and ISO
for formal endorsement,
are Advanced Micro
Devices, Hewlett-Pack¬
ard, Hitachi, Maxtor,
Mitsubishi, Olympus Op¬
tical, Optotech, Scien¬
tific Micro Systems, and
Western Digital.
• In a joint deal be¬
tween Borland Interna¬
tional and Digital Re¬
search, Inc. (Monterey,
CA), OEMs can offer
their customers certain
Borland programs to go
along with DRI’s DR
DOS. Computer makers
who use DRI’s enhanced
DOS in their systems
can also throw in Bor¬
land’s SideKick, Turbo
Pascal, Turbo C, and
Turbo Basic.
• The world of three-
dimensional spread¬
sheets will get a little
more crowded this spring
when FormalSoft
(Sandy, UT) starts ship¬
ping its new ProQube
program. The package’s
features include slicing
across multiple spread¬
sheets, three-axis pre¬
sentation graphics, condi¬
tional embedded
external application calls,
and ASCII file macros.
The design uses virtual
memory to extend large
worksheets out onto the
disk. The company
plans to sell ProQube for
$247.50.
• Remember that this
month we celebrate Na¬
tional Engineers Week
(February 19 to 25). The
theme of the week is
“Turning Ideas into Real¬
ity,” and the societies
that are sponsoring the
idea would like us all to
honor the engineer “as
innovator and problem
solver.” Just to clarify
things, we’re not talk¬
ing about the ones who
drive trains.
Wescon Highlights: Toshiba’s Big LCD, Eighteen Eight’s
Array Processor
It doesn’t have the glitz
and critical mass of COM¬
DEX, but the IEEE’s Wes¬
con electronics exhibition is
no small potatoes. This
year’s show in Anaheim fea¬
tured some 6000 exhibitors
and an estimated attendance
of nearly 60,000. If you’re
shopping for transducers,
printed circuit board design
software, digital waveform
analyzers, and miniature
bearings and IC testers, Wes¬
con is the place to be.
Although most of the
showcased products are
aimed at designers and
manufacturers of electronics
components, there are al¬
ways a few new products of
importance to end users.
For example, Toshiba un¬
wrapped its new 640- by
480-pixel liquid crystal
display for laptop com¬
puters. Unlike conventional
double-layer displays, the
M-ST black-and-white unit
uses a single-layer, backlit
design. It’s only 20 milli¬
meters thick and weighs
about 700 grams (about 1 .5
pounds). With a .33-mm
dot pitch, the M-ST display
has excellent contrast and
will certainly attract the in¬
terest of laptop computer
manufacturers. However, the
M-ST is not cheap; “sam¬
ple pricing” is $646. Toshiba
said it is planning to ship
the new display in volume
this spring.
Another eye-catching
product at the show was a
floating-point array proces¬
sor for IBM PCs and compat¬
ibles. Eighteen Eight Lab¬
oratories claims its PL800
array processor delivers 8
million floating-point in¬
structions per second for a
price of $1995. You can in¬
stall up to eight PL800 pro¬
cessor boards in a single ma¬
chine. The PL800 comes
with a library of 473 micro-
coded functions and sup¬
ports most popular FOR¬
TRAN, C, and Pascal
compilers, including those
from Microsoft, Borland,
Lattice, Lahey, and Ryan-
McFarland. The 8-bit board
requires only about 5 watts of
power.
For more information,
contact: Toshiba America,
9775 Toledo Way, Irvine,
CA 92718,(714) 455-2000;
Eighteen Eight Laborato¬
ries, 771 Gage Dr., San
Diego, CA 92106, (619)
224-2158.
Simulation System Could Cut Costs of Real-Time Design
Athena Systems (Sunny¬
vale, CA) has a new
computer-aided software
engineering (CASE) and sim¬
ulation tool that could cut
down the costs of designing
real-time systems. The
graphics-based Foresight,
which runs on Sun worksta¬
tions, is a sophisticated simu¬
lation program that uses the
concepts of block diagrams
and data flow to represent
physical processes.
While CASE tools sup¬
porting You rdon/ DeMarco
methods are available, as
are both discrete and continu¬
ous systems simulators,
Foresight combines them.
The program also imple¬
ments real-time extensions to
CASE methodology. The
developers claim that Fore¬
sight will change embedded
systems engineering in much
the same way that CAE
tools have changed the design
of ICs and printed circuit
boards.
“Foresight helps uncover
errors during the early re¬
quirements definition
stage— where most design
flaws are introduced—
before hardware and software
engineers proceed with
their development tasks,”
said Patrick Rickard, presi¬
dent of Athena. “It’s essen¬
tial to correct errors early
because the cost to repair
them increases exponential¬
ly as the project progresses,”
he added.
Development of em¬
bedded real-time systems,
which are extremely com¬
plex, is notorious for cost
overruns and schedule slip¬
page. In the aerospace and
defense industries, for ex¬
ample, where embedded sys¬
tems are used extensively in
applications such as aircraft
guidance, electronic
switching, and weapons con¬
trol, the reliability of soft¬
ware and hardware in the real
world is a very major
concern.
Foresight, by personal
computer standards, is not
cheap by any means; it
costs $23,680 per user for a
10-user license.
For more information,
contact: Athena Systems, 139
Kifer Court, Suite 200,
Sunnyvale, CA 94088, (408)
730-2100.
TECHNOLOGY NEWS WANTED. The news staff at BYTE is
interested in hearing about new technological and scientific de¬
velopments that might have an impact on microcomputers and
the people who use them. If you know of advances or projects
relevant to microcomputing, please contact the Microbytes staff
at (603) 924-928 J , send mail on BIX to Microbytes, or write to
us at One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458. An
electronic version of Microbytes, which offers a wider variety of
computer-related news on a daily basis, is available on BIX.
20 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Hewlett-Packard’ and QMS’ have made it easy
to give your LaserJet Series II* the desktop
publishing power of the PostScript* page de¬
scription language.
The new QMS JetScript™
JetScript is the only Adobe PostScript
controller upgrade authorized by HP and de¬
signed specifically for the LaserJet Series II.
JetScript gives your printer the industry-
standard page description language to accom¬
pany HP’s PCL printer language. This expands
your laser printing capabilities. Increases over¬
all printer performance. Yet preserves HP func¬
tionality and warranties.
Do it yourself JetScript is easy to install. Just
plug in two cards (one in your personal com¬
puter*, the other in your printer), connect a
cable and install the software.
The result is a PostScript system with 35
resident Adobe typefaces, three megabytes of
RAM, and QMS ASAP™ (Advanced System
Architecture for PostScript) proprietary tech¬
nology for superior performance. All for less
than half the cost of a new PostScript laser
printer.
1
New forms of expression The speed and
power of JetScript combine to give your LaserJet
Series II a form of expression that’s found only
with PostScript.
Simply, PostScript opens up the full range
of possibilities for desktop publishing. You
have complete control over the final look of the
page, down to the last exacting detail. PostScript
allows for an infinite number of font variations
and sizes. That makes PostScript’s limitless
flexibility and power the perfect complement to
your LaserJet Series II, giving you the high-
quality output you require.
Impressive results People have come to expect
impressive results from QMS— one of the first
companies to bring the power of PostScript to
laser printing, and now with more PostScript-
based products than any other company.
You’ll get the same results from the new
JetScript After all, it has HP’s blessing.
Laser Connection is a sales and marketing
subsidiary of QMS. Call 1-800-523-2696 for
the location of your nearest Laser Connection
dealer.
‘JetScript available for IBM PC-XT', IBMPC-AT: HPVectra ™
and compatible personal computers, or the IBM PS/2 ™ Model 30.
ME LASER
vsconnGCTiorr
AfflIS'Compam/
Circle 127 on Reader Service Card
The follow i fig are trademarks of their respective companies: HR Hewlett-Packard,
LaserJet Series IE. HP Vectra of Hewlett-Packard, QMS. JetScript. ASAR Laser
Connection of QMS, Inc. PostScript of Adobe Systems, IBM PC-XT: IBM PC- AT
and IBM PS/2 of International Business Machines Corp.
01987 Laser Connection
FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 21
Announcing a big leap in mouse technology.
800-231-7717
foZ
LOGITECH
Finally, a mouse with an extraordinary body
and a mind to match.
A mouse
baliisticaliy
tuned to accel¬
erate your cursor across
any screen with the mere flick
of a wrist, and slow it down on
arrival for pixel-point control on
detail work.
This mouse is guaranteed to work with alt
applications on your IBM personal computer
And it comes with a great selection of
MouseWare™ including Pop-Up DOS- the
ultimate DOS handler; Mouse-2-3™ the Lotus
1 -2-3'“ shell; and 35 menus for best-selling
keyboard-based applications.
The Logitech Mouse. $139, complete with
Logitech's Lifetime Satisfaction Guarantee
and unlimited Product Support
For your nearest dealer, call:
In California:
800-552-8885
In Europe:
+ + 41 -21 -869-96-56
Circle 133 on Reader Service Card
{ DEALERS ; 134)
Circle 150 on Reader Service Card
OUTSTANDING
SOFTWARE
$2-49
Per Disk
($2.99 per disk f UliBMfc
when ordering
less than 10)
Satisfaction Guaranteed or* Money Back!
BUSINESS
QD 13 Express Calc - (2 disks) Powerful financial spreadsheet
□ 53 EZ-Forms - Create, fill in, print yr business forms. 51 2K.
□ 79 Invoicer - Generate invoices, ease record keeping.
[I] 117 Finance Mgr II - (2 disks) Handle personal/bus finances.
G0 135 PC-Acct - (2 disks) Manage books, track inventory, sales.
□ 159 Mass Appeal - Mail mgr for envelopes, labels and more.
□ 190 PDS*Quote - Compute job/cost estimates. 640K.
□ 201 Checks - Log bank transactions, produce financial rpts.
DEI 226 File Express - (2 disks) Menu driven all purp database.
® 232 Dr Data - (2 disks) Friendly, easy-to-use mail mgr. 640K.
□ 234 T-Master - Control & update inventory. Know daily levels.
□ 316 Tracker - Manage clients, sales prospects! 51 2K, hrd dsk.
® 319 EZ-Desk - (2 disks) Keep appointments, update agendas.
□ 337 Charge - Analyze your credit charges, payments, interest
□ 383 Mutual Fund Mgr - Track yr portfolio, get weekly reports.
EDUCATION
□ 186 DOS Tutor - Learn DOS painlessly w/this interactive tutor!]
□ 191 PC-Quizzer - Learn music, States, etc. Sign lang demo.
□ 228 PC-Fastype - Teaches typing. Builds dazzling speed! ★
□ 297 XY-Solve - Graphic math game makes learning fun!
□ 366 Gradescan - Makes it simple to keep and avg grades.
□ 376 GradeM - Teachers/students can track/summarize grades.
GO 384 XY-See - (2 disks) Graphic math for HS/college students.
GRAPHICS
□ 58 Chemview - Rotating 3-D molecular structures. EGA.
® 145 Fingerpaint - (2 disks) Paint! Also obj oriented dsgn. ★
dJ 210 Dancad3D - (2 disks) Advanced design. 640K/hrd dsk. ★)
® 285 Surfmodl - (3 disks) Produce & shade 3-D images. ★
GO 356 Geoclock - (2 disks) Time map w/sun, dark areas! EGA.
® 362 VGACad - (2 disks) Super res 256 color painting! VGA.
GAMES
□ 1 5 Biblemen - Excerdse knowledge of Bible figures/events.
□ 23 Star Trek - Amazing high res! Also Othello, Artillery. EGA.
□ 28 Wordplay - (Ik Wheel of Fortune). Also Backgammon. ★
□ 84 Solitaire - Grt card games, Spider, Klondike, Canfield! ★
□ 121 Arcade - Qubert, Pango, Centipede, Hopper & more. ★
□ 151 Hack - You & yr trusty dog in a wild adventure (Ik Rogue),
□ 176 Striker - Helicopter attck. Also Risk, world domination. ★
□ 215 Phrase Craze - Solve word puzzles or create your own!
□ 289 3-D Packman - Also Kong, Spacewar, ABM (missiles). ★
□ 309 Blackjack - (you set rules). Also ArmchairQB & Empire!
□ 321 Adventure - Explore the caves! Also Castle, Star Trek,
d] 365 Adventure Game Toolkit - (5 disks) Play, create yr own!
□ 372 Pinball - Also Othello, Dragons, Sopwith, Battleship. ★
UTILITIES
□ 138 Printer Utilities - Spooling, banners, fonts & more!
® 214 Zip-Phone - (2 disks) Xrefs phon# to zipcode & vice-vers.
□ 258 Easy Access - Setup a menu sys for your PC. Hard disk.
□ 275 DOS Utilities - Large collection of invaluable general utils.
MISCELLANEOUS
GO 31 Movie Database - (2 disks) Lists 4,000+ films. Grt trivia!
GO 48 Wisdom of the Ages - (4 disks) 6000+ famous quotes.
M 72 Bible -(12 disks) Cmpltindxd King James bible! Hrd dsk.
□ 74 Landlord - Trouble w/yr landlord? Learn your legal rights!
□ 146 PC-Lotto - Helps you beat your state’s lotto odds!
GO 153 PC-Write - (2 disks) Popular, powerful word processor.
GO 291 PianoMan - (2 disks) Record your tunes or play music.
□ 367 Music Library System - Track your tapes, LPs & CDs.
® 386 Computer Chef - (2 disks) 1 50+ grt recipes. Add yr own!
★ Disks so marked above require a color graphics adapter.
I Membership Special! $19.95 (reg. $34.95)
For $19.95 ($25.95fyear for 3.5") become a MicroCom Systems
member and get: 'The Shareware Book" ($12.95 separately), a
subscription to "Shareware Review" magazine, 6 free new-
release shareware disks (one featured each issue), low member
prices, and any disks in this ad for only $1.99 each! ($2.99 for 3.5")
3.5" disks desired (add $1 .00/disk to applicable price)
J&LQQ
MicroCom Systems
3673 Enochs Street
Santa Clara, CA
95051
Phone Toll Free for Same-Day Shipment!
Cost of disks_
Membership_
Shipping _
CA res tax _
Total end. _
3S (800)727-5995 '
51988, MCS Mon-Fri 7am-9pm, Sat-Sun 8am-5pm BY-02/89
24 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
LETTERS
The High Cost of RAM
The unkind words about OS/2 (“OS/2’s
Multitasking Dashboard” by Mark Min-
asi, November 1988) are a classic ex¬
ample of blaming the victim.
Microsoft must have had to make its
final decision on memory usage a couple
of years ago. Back then, the price of
RAM was about $100 per megabyte,
with a prospect of further decline by now
to, say, $25 to $50 per megabyte (the
September 1988 BYTE had ads for 150-
nanosecond 256K-byte chips at $2.95
each, or $106.20 per megabyte). There
was an intense ferment over all sorts of
ways to use more RAM— RAM disks or
Expanded Memory Specification mem¬
ory (not one, but two competing variet¬
ies). On that basis, it must have been al¬
most impossible to justify less than 4
megabytes for any operating system that
broke the 640K-byte barrier.
What happened was this: Largely due
to protectionism, RAM prices rose to
$400 to $500 per megabyte. Don’t blame
Microsoft; blame the politicians. And
bear in mind that OS/2 is by no means
the only computer product injured by
high RAM prices.
Andrew D. Todd
Springfield , OR
Just Don’t Get Too Excited
I’m a novice computer user, and BYTE
gives me a lot of pleasure.
I’d like to offer a comment on Brock
N. Meeks’s “Computer Conferencing
Homecoming” (September 1988). This
is the kind of article that turns my pace¬
maker on high. Maybe in the future, Mr.
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU. Please
double-space your letter on one side of the
page and include your name and address. We
can print listings and tables along with a
letter if they are short and legible. Address
correspondence to Letters Editor, BYTE,
One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough,
NH 03458.
Because of space limitations, we reserve
the right to edit letters. Generally, it takes
four months from the time we receive a letter
until we publish it.
Meeks will be able to keep people like
me in mind and write a piece that could
help us get started on BIX, MIX, and
CompuServe.
Reg. Roberts
Costa Mesa, CA
The Old Spool Tie
I cannot let Jud McCranie’s authorita¬
tive-sounding correction of Brett Glass’s
spool definition (Letters, October 1988)
stand unchallenged.
In the interest of historical accuracy,
spool is indeed an acronym for “simulta¬
neous peripheral operation on-line.”
Mr. McCranie states that his somewhat
literal interpretation of the word spool
dates back to “the old mainframe days.”
Just how old is Mr. McCranie, anyway?
In the old mainframe days (and now),
spooling was usually a high-priority task
involving direct-access devices (disks
and drums), rather than reels (or spools)
of tape. The practice of sending print out¬
put to tape, although common, has little
to do with the original intent of spooling.
As for the acronym being a “recent ad
hoc creation,” there is a terrific explana¬
tion of spooling in Harry Katzan Jr.’s ex¬
cellent book Operating Systems: A Prag¬
matic Approach , published in 1973.
Professor Katzan observes that “spool¬
ing was the first stage of multiprogram¬
ming as we know it today.”
Joe Riley
Los Angeles, CA
True Meanings
Dennis Lee Bieber misrepresented the
true meaning of the names of the P and V
semaphore primitives (Letters, October
1988). According to professor E. W.
Dijkstra himself, while teaching a
course entitled “Operating Systems
Techniques,” he derived the names P
and V from two Dutch verbs, “pakken”
(seize) and “vrygeven” (release). Even
with the coincidental starting letters,
“procure” and “vacate” capture the
spirit nicely.
Signal and wait functions are typically
performed on events for process syn-
continued
THE FOXBASE+ EFFECT
Nothing gets through your workload faster than
FoxBASE-k Because no other database package has more
timesaving features.
Speed is something every manufacturer claims. But we'd
quickly point out that FoxBASE+ outpaces every other
package in popular tests by margins so staggering, you'll
wonder how you ever managed with ordinary software. In
fact FoxBASE+ 2,10 is the fastest dBASE-compatible
database system.
Most publishers claim "compatibility" too. But the fact
that you often have to re-write parts of your program is
curiously omitted. That's why you'll appreciate FoxBASE+'s
ability to run ail your dBASE applications immediately -
without changes.
Fox BAS E+ not only supports the dBASE standard, but
also allows you to enhance your applications with special
f eatures which include two-dimensional arrays, user def ined
functions, filtered indexes and new commands to create
pop-up and pull-down menus.
Best of all though, is the term "user friendly': Often a
misnomer for weeks of training with mind numbing
manuals. Hardly easy.
That's why FoxBASE* includes features that enable you to
get working right away,
FoxCentral is a new type of user interface. Using
pull-down and pop-up menus, you can perform every
important database operation without programming!
FoxView Is a screen design tool that helps you create
beautiful custom data input screens.
FoxCode is our new applications generator that can
easily produce the simplest or most sophisticated
applications for you.
\bu can even document your programs automatically
with Fox Doc by simply pressing a few keys.
FoxBASE+ is available in a variety of versions for the most
popular operating environments including MS/PC DOS,
Macintosh and UNiX/XEfm There's even a 386 version!
FoxBASE+/LAN supports an unlimited number of users on
a network (No LAN PACKS required). Our Unlimited Royalty-
Free Runtime allows extremely economical distribution of
an unlimited number of your applications without incurring
any royalty fees.
And if you want to add another dimension to your data
use FoxCraph, the exciting newgraphics package from Fox.
Take a look at FoxBA$E+ today, 'rbu won't find a more
powerful dBASE-compatible relational database
management system, FoxBASE+ is retails for $395,
Fox BASE +/ LAN for $595 and FoxCraph for $295 at you r local
quality software dealer Or call 419/874-0162 for more
information and a free demo- package. Ask for extension 320.
dBASE is a registered trademark, of Ashton -Tate,
FoxBASE+ is a trademark of fox Software Inc.
Fox Software ~
Nothing Runs Like a Fox.
Fox Software Inc. 118 W South Boundary Perrysburg, OH 43551 Phone #: 419/874-0162 FAX #: 419/874-8678 Telex #. 6S03040827 FOX
Fox Software International intech House Cain Centre wilbury way Hitch in Herts SG4 GAP Tel: 0462 42 1999 Fax; 0462 42 13 18
Circle 93 an Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 •BYTE 25
LETTERS
THINK
BIG
Phar Lap
Virtual Memory Manager.
It will let you write applications up to 5, 10, 15 megabytes or more
for any 386 PC running MS-DOS* Forget about RAM limitations.
Your application can run on a machine with as little as 1 or 2 mega¬
bytes of memory.
Only Phar Lap 386IVMM* gives you demand-paged virtual memory capa¬
bility so you can write mainframe-sized applications for the PC. Applications
your customers can run on their 386 PCs now with no additional memory. No
kidding. All you need is 386IVMM and our family of 386 development tools.
Existing programs developed with our 386IDOS-Extender can be easily
expanded with 386IVMM too.
Our tools let you take full advantage of the 386 protected mode architec¬
ture. Break the DOS 640K limit in the language of your choice; C, Fortran,
Pascal, or Assembler.
For fast compact code, use 386IASM, our 80386 assembler that’s upwardly
compatible with the MASM* 8086 assembler. Existing DOS and mainframe
applications written in a high level language are easily ported by recompiling.
And 386ILINK, our 32-bit native mode linker, puts it all together.
Debugging is made easy too. With our 386 symbolic debugger you can
debug applications written in assembler or any high level language. Best of all,
with Phar Lap’s 386IDOS-Extender* you can run your native mode program
on any 386-based PC running MS-DOS. And you have full access to DOS
system services through INT 21.
NO COMPATIBILITY PROBLEMS
Phar Lap’s tools are compatible
with the industry’s leading systems:
DESKPRO 386* IBM Model 70/80*
386 clones and accelerator boards.
Not only will your new applications
be compatible with the leading
systems, they’ll run alongside all
other DOS applications.
NO ROYALTY PAYMENTS
Once your 386 application is complete,
all you pay is a low one-time fee to license
386IDOS-Extender for redistribution.
386IVMM is also developer friendly.
Call to find out about our flexible run¬
time pricing.
You can unlock the entire DOS market
now. Don’t wait for OS/3.
$495 3861 ASM / LINK-Package includes 386 assembler, linker, MINIBUG
debugger and the developer version of 386IDOS-Extender
$895 MetaWare 80386 High C* compiler
$595 MicroWay NDP Fortran-386* compiler
$195 3861 DEBU G symbolic deb ugger
$295 386IVMM - developer version of the
Phar Lap Virtual Memory Manager
(617) 661-1510
PHAR LAP SOFTWARE, INC.
60 Aberdeen Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Fax: (617) 876-2972
“THE 80386 SOFTWARE EXPERTS”
Phar Lap and 386lDOS-Extcndcr and 386 1 VMM are trademarks of Phar Lap Software, Inc. MS-DOS and MASM arc registered trademarks
of Microsoft Corp. DESKPRO 386 is a trademark of Compaq Corp. NDP Fortran-386 is a trademark of MicroWay, Inc. High C and
Professional Pascal are trademarks of MetaWare Incorporated. IBM Model 70/80 is a trademark
of IBM Corp.
chronization. They can’t be used for mu¬
tual exclusion of critical regions of code,
like the semaphore primitives, because
executing a signal for an event will re¬
start all processes waiting on that event.
Lex Borger
Mission Viejo , CA
Multiuser Advantages
In your IBM Special Edition (Fall 1988),
there is considerable discussion about the
roles of OS/2 and local-area networks
(LANs) in workplace computing. While
I found these discussions interesting and
enlightening, I am puzzled by the lack of
concern that OS/2 is not a multiuser op¬
erating system.
To quote from the text box “OS/2 ver¬
sus Unix: Is DOS Compatibility the
Key?” by Jason Levitt on page 112,
“OS/2 is not a multiuser system, but ad¬
vances in networking and distributed
software will eventually make this a
moot point.” This view ignores an im¬
portant advantage of multiuser systems:
the ability to function as a “compute
server” for a workgroup.
Consider a small academic depart¬
ment that needs access to a large com¬
puter for number crunching but that also
does a lot of word processing and smaller
tasks. To facilitate the numerical work,
the department might buy a large 80386
machine. Resources wouldn’t permit
buying a separate 80386 machine for
each user but would provide for individ¬
ual basic IBM PC AT clones and a low-
volume LAN. This arrangement would
not permit sharing the 80386 machine
because the operating system (DOS or
OS/2) wouldn’t permit remote log-ins
from LAN stations. Hence, to share the
80386 machine, you’d need to sit at the
keyboard attached to the machine. This
is inefficient and awkward. The 80386
could be used as a file server, but then
each of the remote stations would need
the hardware resources to run the analy¬
sis software, again increasing costs.
A multiuser operating system would
permit the use of the 80386 machine as a
remote “compute server.” Even if the
system were set so that only one person
could log on at a time, this would be a
major improvement over the current op¬
tions with OS/2. I hope Microsoft will
consider this type of situation in its fu¬
ture plans for OS/2.
Nicholas Birkett
Ottawa , Ontario , Canada
Short Dispute
In your Product Focus entitled “80386s
for the Masses” by Steve Apiki and Stan-
continued
26 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 180 on Reader Service Card
PC EXPERTS AGREE:
Proteus offers the fastest for the
least, and supports them the most.
Proteus® sells the fastest personal computers
you'll find. But as experts from BYTE, InfoWorld,
Personal Computing, and others have discovered,
our computers are more than just fast.
They're also an excellent value. You can't find
better performing computers at lower prices.
And Proteus allows you to custom configure a
system to your exact specifications.
Finally, Proteus provides you with 15 months of
Free on-site service and support. And if you’re not
“The Proteus
is one of
the fastest
desktop
computer
systems we
tested, a
zero-
wait-state
hot rod. ”
Inf EWorld Magazine
PROTEUS 386/16
16 MHz opt. 20MHz
ZERO WAIT STATE
* Intel 80386 CPU at 16 MHz
* Optional 80386—20 MHz
* 1MB HAM— Expandable to 16MB
■ Intel 82385EE cache ctlr,
* 32K fash cache
* 2 serial & 1 parallel port
* 1.2MB floppy drive
* Dual HD & floppy controller
* 200 W power supply, 1 10/220 V
■ 10 1 key tactile keyboard
* 15-month free on-site sendee
* Made in U,S.A.
Complete Systems $2,195
with Hard Disk and Monitor:
* 40MB 2Sms mono $2,390
* 40MB 28ms VGA color $3*299
- 40MB 28ms VGA plus $3,699
for 80MB add
$175
for 100MB add
* $614
for 150MB add
$1,525
for 340MB add
-n $2,675
“This IBM-
compatible
is so fast
I have had
trouble
measuring
its speed. ”
Business Computer Digest
PROTEUS286GTS
12MHz, ZERO WAIT STATE
• Intel 80286-12 CPU
• 640 K RAM expandable to 16MB
•32KB cache memory
• 8 expansion slots
• 2 serial & 1 parallel port
• 1,2MB floppy drive or 3.5"
microfloppy
• Dual HD & floppy controller
• 2GQW power supply, 110/2 20V
• 101 key tactile keyboard
• 15-month free on site service
• Made in U,S,A.
Complete Systems
with Hard Disk and Monitor:
• 20MB mono $1,995
• 20MB VGA color $2,502
- 20MB (16-bit) VGA $2,730
for 40MB add
$150
for 80MB add
$440
“...the favorite
system of our
technicians
because of
its speed.”
InfoWorld Magazine
I Ul_Ll ( “ "TTi
satisfied with Proteus equipment within 30 days,
you can return it for a full refund.
These are the reasons why the experts are so
impressed with Proteus. And they’re not alone.
NASA, Xerox, GE, RCA, Dupont, GM, Revlon,
General Dynamics, the U.S. Government, the U.N.,
MIT, Harvard, and Cornell have all become big
Proteus users.
For the fastest, most economical, best supported
computers available, follow the experts to Proteus.
“Proteus is
markedly faster
than any other
personal
computer we’ve
worked with,
including
Deskpro
386/20.”
Personal Computing Magazine
PROTEUS 386/25
25MHz, ZERO WAIT STATE
• Intel 80336 CPU at 25 MHz
• 1MB RAM expandable to 32MB
• Intel 823S55EE cache ctlr.
• S2K fash cache
• 387 coprocessor support
• 2 serial & 1 parallel port
• Dual HD & floppy controller
• 200W power supply, 110/220 V
■ 1,2MB floppy drive
• 10 1 key tactile keyboard
• 15-month free on-site service
• Made in U.S,A.
Complete Systems $3,995
with Hard Disk and Monitor:
• 40MB 28ms mono $5,199
• 40MB 28ms VGA color $5,669
• 40MB 28ms VGA plus $6,069
for 80MB add
$175
for 90MB add
$1,125
for 150MB add
$1,525
for 340MB add
$2,675
PROTEUS POWER
EXTRA PROTEUS POWER
WITH CUSTOMIZATION
• 1:1 interleave controller
• ESDI HD up to 700MB
• microfloppy drives
• tape streamers, 40MB to 225MB
• coprocessors
• brand name monitors and cards
• floor-stand configuration on a!) models
• custom configuration on all models
To order, call us direct. 1-800-782-8387
For 24 hr catalog, call 1-800-548-5036 using your modem set at 1200 or 2400B/N/S/L |the INTELLIGENT CONCLUSION
Technical Support Hotline: 1-800-541-8933 Reseller/VAR programs available. 377 Route ns, Airport n Center
All trademarks recognized. © Proteus is a registered trademark of Proteus Technology Corp. All prices, terms, specs subject to change Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 07604
Circle 185 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 27
What looks like DOS,
acts like DOS,
is easy like DOS,
can hook everybody up
and keep ’em hopping
from program to program,
and costs less than
an office chair?
28 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
The Comfortably Affordable
(and already available) PGMOS
TM
If you can afford a nice leather
chair for your office, you can
afford a multi-user, multi-tasking
operating system that’s just as
comfortable to use.
PC-MOS incorporates break¬
through technology that allows
you to fully harness the power
and capabilities of 80386-based
computers, while maintaining
the compatibility and ease of
use of DOS. So now you can
have up to 25 inexpensive ter¬
minals driven by a single 80386
processor. You can continue to
use your favorite software pro¬
grams like Lotus 1-2-3,"" dBASE
III," and WordPerfect,™ and you
can keep using those familiar
DOS commands like DIR and
COPY You can even run all those
terminals as a single cluster
connected to a Novell server.
PC-MOS comes in single,
five and 25-user versions starting
at $195. Your satisfaction is
guaranteed or you get a com¬
plete refund.
For more information about
PC-MOS and the name of the
authorized dealer nearest you,
call 1-800-451-LINK. Then you
can sit back and relax.
THE SOFTWARE LINK
3577 PARKWAY LANE * NORCROSS, GEORGIA 30092
INSIDE GEORGIA: 404 448-5465 - FAX; 404 263-6474
INTERNATIONAL CALLS: 404-263-1006
PC-MOS is a trademark of The Software Unk, Enc. Alt other brand names are the trademarks of their respective holders.
Circle 213 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS; 214)
FEBRUARY 1989 'BYTE 29
LETTERS
ford Diehl (October 1988), we were
pleased to note that our Zeos 386 Tower
was the fastest 16-MHz machine re¬
viewed. We appreciate your many favor¬
able comments as well.
One criticism of all systems reviewed
was that the connecting cables are too
short. The Zeos tower-style configura¬
tion was noted as having shorter cables.
This is not the case.
Zeos normally ships, at no additional
charge, a full set of extension cables with
each 80386 tower-style system ordered.
This includes monitor power, signal, and
keyboard extension cables. This standard
extension cable set provides plenty of
length to work with.
Zeos shipped BYTE two systems for
review. The first system was completely
standard and included extension cables.
Unfortunately, it was damaged in ship¬
ment. We replaced the cabinet with a sec¬
ond one but didn’t send another cable set.
BYTE already had the extension cables
and the other system components.
Zeos makes every effort to provide its
customers with complete ready-to-run
systems— including extension cables
with our tower-style systems.
Greg Herrick
President, Zeos International
St. Paul , MN
Factoring the Unforeseen
I would like to contribute to the recent
“Minds vs. Programs” correspondence
(Letters, September 1988).
In the late 1960s in England, I devel¬
oped one of the first expert systems, al¬
though we did not use that expression
then, to analyze predigitized optical data
from an elementary particle physics ex¬
periment. The program was developed
on an IBM 360/75 in FORTRAN, which
was about the only language available at
that time. I played a major part in its
development, especially in the pattern
recognition.
Eventually, it achieved a 99.9 percent
pattern-recognition efficiency for single
particle tracks. It also had to have a very
high background recognition efficiency,
because the signal-to-noise ratio in the
data was 1 to 2200. We found it hard to
make this better than 1 to 100 and were
forced to plot the data on 16mm film
(using a Ferranti Atlas) and scan the data
by eye to eliminate the rest of the noise.
To maintain both a high pattern-recogni¬
tion efficiency and a high background re¬
jection efficiency, I developed a hierar¬
chical system of self-adjusting selection
criteria— in effect, rules that changed
themselves in a systematic way if they
failed to succeed.
This work gave me considerable in¬
sight into the problems of computer pat¬
tern recognition. My conclusions are as
follows:
• The human intellect is capable of
holding an abstract representation of
what it is seeking in its consciousness
and of comparing that with what it
has found.
• The human intellect is capable of
detecting when its algorithms or
techniques have not yielded the
desired solution.
• The human intellect is driven by
emotions, which a computer does
not have. It can generate new
algorithms to achieve its goal, new
goals if the previous one is in error, or
even new emotions to create a more
satisfactory reality.
• A computer lacks this fundamental
consciousness and creativity.
continued
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New Invention Makes It Possible!
Do you use the new, high capacity, 3V2 inch disks? If so, you have paid four, five, even six dollars per
disk! Byte for byte, that is as much as SIX TIMES the ‘old’ 360K tloppies. Now you can convert all your
programs, data, and files to the new format, WITHOUT PAYING THESE PRICES!
How Is This Possible? Have you ever tried to format a regular, ‘low density’ 3V2 inch disk to 1.44 MB? Of
course you have! It doesn’t work! The computer gives an invalid media error. Our company was putting
in a large network of IBM Clones. We have grown from a small company to a million-dollar corporation
in two short years, and we didn't do it by wasting money. So, of course, we tried to use the cheap, 720K
disks. Total failure.
Enter our Crackpot Engineer. Our Crackpot Engineer wondered what was the difference between the
disks. He tore them apart, analyzed the media. He found NO DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER! Yet, they would
not format. Why? Then he started examining the plastic housing. And he found the difference. It is NOT
in the media, IT IS IN THE PLASTIC CASE!
Total Failure! Our Crackpot Engineer (among other things, he invented the Electronic Flea Collar) sent
a brand-new 720K disk to our machine shop, and asked them to modify it. They did... and the DISK
IMMEDIATELY FORMATTED! But, within 10 minutes of use, it totally failed. It lost data all over the place. Back
to the drawing board. The disk was dis-assembled and examined. It was found thaf, in performing the
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obvious that, if the conversion could be done reliably, it required extreme precision.
Enter Our Other Crackpot Engineer Our president is a mechanical engineer. One of the best in the country.
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perform the modification EVERY TIME and leave no plastic particles which would damage the disk!
Months of Testing We then commenced on a testing program. We modified and formatted thousands
of disks, and tested them for data integrity. Out of one thousand disks, one would not format, two had
one bad track. NOT ONE LOST ANY DATA! We then put a disk on a computer with a bat file which copied
data to a disk, read and checked every byte, then copied the data back to the disk. The program ran
24 hours a day, for TWO SOLID WEEKS without even one error! We were finally convinced that the procedure
was reliable enough for a producf.
Our Offer. Here is our irresistible offer. Purchase our DoubleDisk Converter for the price of $29.95. If you
are not COMPLETELY SATISFIED, return the DoubleDisk. You will receive a FULL REFUND! What is more, if a
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manufacturer in exchange!
You Can’t Lose! You will save MORE THAN THE PURCHASE PRICE IN CONVERTING ONLY YOUR FIRST TEN DISKS!
from that point on, It is all profit. After converting only 100 disks, and after deducting the cost of the
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Name
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State
Zip
Telephone
Send To: Biological Engineering, Inc., DoubleDisk Offer
2674 Main Street, Ventura, CA 93003 Phone 805-644-1797
30 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 36 on Reader Service Card
Now you can grab, store, and process
16 images in Real Time on the PC AT.
The DT2861 Arithmetic Frame
Grabber can process 4 times as many P|
images as any other frame grabber
built for the PC AT.
With a built-in processor, the DT2861
also lets you process 4 images in parallel,
or switch display instantaneously from
as many as 16 images. The DT2861 grabs
images off virtually any video source,
5 va including CAT scanners , scanning
H electron microscopes, line-scan
~ '''^cameras , as well as
ordinary video cameras
and VCRs. It even ships
with IRIStutor" software -
for free!
For more information
about the Frame Grabber
The many faces of Fred Molinari, President.
that’s 4 times better than anything else
made for PCs, give us a call today,
Call (508) 481-3700
In Canada, call (800) 268-0427
■4 DT- Connect is an open interface
specification which permits the direct
connection of stand-alone data acquisi¬
tion and frame grabber boards to pro¬
cessor boards for greatly accelerated
signal (DSP) and image processing.
Image
Processing
Board
Computer
Resolution
Gray Levels
RS-L7D, NTSC,
RS-330, CCiR,
PAL Compatible
VCR
Compatible
Slow Scan
Number
of Video
Inputs
Real-Time
Frame Grab
On Board
8-bit ALU
Memory- Mapped
Frame -Store
Memory
Zoom, Pan,
Scroll
Software
Support
Price
OT2B61
Frame
Grabber
IBM PC AT
512x512
256
Yes
Yes
0-12 MHz
8*
Yes
Yes
16 buffers
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(4 Mbytes)
Yes
DT-IR1S
iRlStutor
$5995
‘With DT2B59 Vi size multiplexer board ($395).
DATA TRANSLATION
World Headquarters: Dala Translation. Inc ., 100 Loclke Drive, Marlboro. MA 01752-1192 USA, (508) 401-3700 Tlx 951640
United Kingdom Headquarters: Dala Translator* Up. The Mulberry Business Park. Wokingham, Berkshire RG31 2GJ, U K. (0734) 79303S Tlx $4011914
West Germany Headquarters: Data Transition GmbH. Slultgarter Strasse 66. 7120 firetigheim-Bissmgen. West Germany 07142-54025
International Sales Gflicea; Austria (2) 602-4255: Belgium (2) 735-2135: Canada (BOO) 250-0427; Chile (2) 25-36S9; China <400} 727-0222. (1) 050-721: Denmark (2) 274511: Finland (90) 372-144: France (1)
09077002. Greece (1) 951-4944. (31 J 527 039. (1) 361 -4300: Hong Kong (5) 440963; India (22) 23- WO: Israel (3) 32' 4296; Italy (2) 82470 t; Japan (3) 340-0301, (3) 502-5550. (3) 355-1111 Korea (02) 7559954.
Morocco [9} 30-4101; Netherlands (70) 99-6300; New Zealand (9) 504759; Nomay (2) 53 12 50; Peru (14) 31 0060; Phippines 030-0103; Portugal 545313: Singapore 7797021; Souih Alrica (12) 8037680193; Spam (1)
455-0312; Sweden (0) 761-7020. Switzerland ft) 723-1:410; Taiwan (2) 9te-4740: Unled Kingdom (0734) 793030; West Germany 07142'54D25
□ala Translation is a registered irademarh of Daia Translation, Inc Ollier brands and products are irademarks of Jherr respective holders.
FEBRUARY 1989 * B Y T E 31
Circle 69 on Reader Service Card
LETTERS
In effect, the human being is like an
infinitely sophisticated, self-conscious,
self-programming computer. We know,
for example, that we are seeking peace
and will go on adjusting our search until
we have found a stable and lasting peace,
for otherwise we shall be destroyed. A
computer would be incapable of this self-
regulation. It would execute its algo¬
rithms until it self-destructed: It wrould
not be motivated to avoid self-destruction
or capable of reprogramming itself to
avoi d se 1 f-dest r uc t ion ,
There are people who would invari¬
ably argue that this is not so, that a com¬
puter could be programmed with this
self-motivation and reprogramming
capability. Rut even if that were so, the
computer would not be capable of gener¬
ating the required emotional response to
a problem whose existence the program¬
mer had not foreseen, because it would
not understand meaning. This is the dif¬
ference between consciousness and ma¬
chine. The key word is programmed . A
program has the consciousness of the
programmer frozen in it. It is crystal¬
lized consciousness, rather than living
consciousness.
Dr. R, J. Ellis
Palo Alto, CA
FIXES
* In the article entitled “The Promise of
Project Management" by Lament Wood
(November 1988), we accidentally omit¬
ted the address for the consulting firm
One Soft Decision, Inc. One Soft pub¬
lishes PM Solutions, an in-depth report
on project management software. For
more information, contact Dan Yahdav,
One Soft Decision, Inc., 573 Wakerobin
Lane, Suite B, P.Ch Box 6123, San Ra¬
fael, CA 94903
* Our November 1988 Short Take on the
NEC Ultra! ite laptop computer failed to
mention some key points about the unit
we reviewed. As the article states, the
machine was an engineering prototype.
We did not explicitly mention, however,
that the ROM disk hardware was not
fully implemented. It could not work,
period. The Lap Link and DOS Manager
software resides in a ROM chip in the
laptop, not on ROM cards, as the article
says. We also omitted the fact that the U1-
tralite comes with a serial cable to use
with the 9-pin, DIN-style connector.
As an update, NEC has told us that a
number of popular applications software
packages have been converted to the
ROM card format, including Lotus 1-2-
3, Agenda, WordPerfect 5.0, WordStar
5, Microsoft Works, Xy Write III, and
NEC’s Telcom 2.0 communications soft¬
ware.
Finally, the Short Take compared the
Ukraine's list price to a Toshiba
TIOOO’s street price. The TIOOO's list
price is $1249.
* Our PostScript Printer Product Focus
(September 1988) gave incorrect scores
for the GCC Business Laser Printer for
graphics and text quality. The numbers
for those categories in table 1 on page 1 66
should read 3.255 for graphics quality
and 3,318 for text quality. BYTE regrets
the error.
* Two photographs were inadvertently
swapped in the What’s New section of
the October 1988 issue. The photograph
on page 78 is actually of a LabView 2.0
screen, as described on page 80. The
photograph on page 80 is a screen from
AbsofLs MacFonran/AUX, which is de¬
scribed on page 78.
'Animation tools
Wat "far outshine
those of other popular
K§ graphics presentation
^packages " Magazine
rogram in the
$fh Dimension...
MIMATE!
Gel unlimited action and interaction with the
most powerful PC animation system available,
Jay calling Grasp routines from your programs
m Ct Pascal. Basic, and other languages.
GRaphic
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System foi
Professic i
develop your graphics applications
jjirectly in Grasp! Take advantage of:
’r74 animation & effects commands
25 predefined fades
g* single-command animation
* all major graphics modes
f Screen capture and graphics
.printing utilities
s& v '
^Includes Pictor, a full-featured
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Convince yourself!
Send us $2.00 for Episode I
“The Adventures of Ferguson Floppy"
400 Williamson Way
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800-523-0258
|RA5P 3.1
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SOFTWARE
32 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 177 on Reader Service Card
NRI’s new at-home
training gives you the
computer, the soft¬
ware, and the hands-
on skills to start a
high-paying career
as a computer
programmer
Now NRI gives you hands-on
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with a powerful IBM-compatible
computer system and software you keep.
One easy step at a time, you build full-
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Pascal, C, and COBOL— today’s hottest
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%ur NRI training includes a computer,
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Unlike any other course, NRTs at-home
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With NRI, you get the skills and
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move on to master all four of today's key
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Before you know it, you have what it
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Now. as never before, you can succeed
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The best news comes from the Bureau of
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I Your NRI training in computer programming
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Now, with NRI, you can leam to program in
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.B-| r U L I Nlh fMltlNi* t rt*»r ■ i PI r I ■ r-
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McGraw-Hili Continuing Education Center
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Washington, D C, 20077-9265
I m 1 1 ii 1 1 m 1 1 1 n I M t n 1 1 1 1 r 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 m 1 1 1 1
NRTs new at-home training in
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With your personal NRI
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programs in BASIC, Pascal, C, and
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Circle 37 on Reader Service Card
Chaos Manor
Mail
Jerry Pournelle answers questions about his column
and related computer topics
One Alternative to OS/2
Dear Jerry,
I use an IBM PS/2 Model 80 for devel¬
opment work as well as in my normal,
day-to-day activities. It consists of a 70-
megabyte hard diskdrive, 2 megabytes of
system memory, a 316-inch internal
Floppy disk drive with drives A and B, an
Identica internal tape backup using SY-
TOS software, a 5^ -inch external SYS-
GEN floppy disk drive for transporting
files and programs to and from the other
systems, and an IBM color monitor.
It was with this Model 80 that 1 en¬
countered problems. I wanted to take ad¬
vantage of the speed and memory avail¬
able by using a multitasking operating
system cal led PC MGS/386 from The
Software Link. My objective, therefore,
was to partition the hard disk as three
logical drives {C D, and E); partition
the 2-megabyte system memory as three
virtual machines to allow three pro¬
grams to run simultaneously under the
PC-MOS/386 operating system; use the
5W-inch external disk drive to maintain
compatibility with other IBM PC, XT,
and AT computers and clones through the
SYSGEN Bridge device driver; and use
the internal tape drive to regularly back
up and restore logical drives C, D, and E
using SYTOS software.
The SYTOS tape backup software,
however, would not run. Calls to The
Software Link and Identica confirmed
that the two could not work together. My
system operated under PC-MOS, but SY¬
TOS would work only under DOS.
I called a local turnkey systems house
familiar with PC-MOS; the people there
had experienced a similar problem on a
Compaq 386, but they had no experience
with a Model 80 or with the SYSGEN ex¬
ternal drive. They explained that they
had solved their problem with Disk Man¬
ager from Ontrack Computer Systems in
Eden Prairie, Minnesota. I called On¬
track, and, with no guarantee of success,
I bought the company’s Disk Manager.
First I copied all my files to 3 Vi-inch
floppy disks, since all the data on my
hard disk would be destroyed. Then,
booling with DOS in drive A, I refor¬
matted the hard disk under DOS 3. 1 with
one bootable DOS partition and one ex¬
tended DOS partition on the hard disk,
which was further split into two logical
drives. I copied all DOS files from drive
A to drive C.
The CONFIG.SYS file was as follows:
DEVICE =BRIDGE.DRV /PS60:2
DEVICE = ANSI. SYS
FILES = 15
I then ran the SYSGEN installation
program from drive A, telling SYSGEN
that there were two 3 Vi -inch internal
drives. I copied all SYSGEN files from
drive A to drive C,
Although I had not run Disk Man¬
ager’s installation yet, 1 copied all Disk
Manager’s files to drive C. I then re¬
booted the computer from drive C. Dur¬
ing the boot, a message was displayed an¬
nouncing that the SYSGEN drive was
installed as drive F.
At this point, I formatted 10 3l6-inch
disks, adding the DOS system to only one
disk. Since this disk would be the DOS
boot disk, I copied all files on drive C to
this disk.
Although the CONFIG.SYS file on
drive A could have been edited, 1 chose
to create a new configuration file for
drive A:
DEV ICE = DMDR I V ER . BI N
DEVICE^ BRIDGE. DRV /PS60:2
DEVICE = ANSI. SYS
FILES = 15
Since the SYSGEN external drive was
now “live,” I copied all the PC-MOS/
386 software from drive F to drive C and
to another disk in drive A (not the DOS
boot disk). I also transferred several
continued
Jerry Pournelle holds a doctorate in psy¬
chology and is a science fiction writer
who also earns a comfort able living writ¬
ing about computers present and future*
He can be reached c/o BYTE, One Phoe¬
nix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458 ,
or on BIX as "jerryp. ”
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FEBRUARY 1 989 • B Y T E 33
CHAOS MANOR MAIL
other files from drive C to the disk in
drive A by typing the following at the
C > prompt:
MSYS A:
COPY DMDRVR.BIN A:
COPY ANSI. SYS A:
COPY BRIDGE. DRV A:
At the A> prompt, I wrote a new
CONFIG.SYS file for drive A:
DEVICE = DMDRVR . BI N
DEVICE = BRIDGE. DRV /PS60:2
DEVICE = ANSI. SYS
MEMDEV =$386. SYS /p
FREEMEM =C4000,C8000
FREEMEM =CA000,E0000
DEVICE = $SERIAL. SYS
SMPSIZE =256K
BUFFERS =22
Since the disk in drive A was the PC-
MOS/386 boot disk, I rebooted from
drive A under PC-MOS/386.
To prepare the hard disk for PC-
MOS/386, I ran HDSETUP from drive
A, allowing PC-MOS/386 to create three
logical MOS disks. I then transferred the
PC-MOS/386 system to drive C. At the
A > prompt, I typed
MSYS C:
COPY *.* C:
Rebooting now from drive C restarted
the machine under the PC-MOS/386 op¬
erating system. The next step was to pre¬
pare the hard disk with Disk Manager.
With the Disk Manager software in
drive A, I typed DM/C/M to invoke Disk
Manager in the color, manual mode.
Looking at the partition information, the
partitions were as follows:
1
0
30
DOS
Y
TSL 1.01
2
31
61
DOS
N
NOSYSTEM
3
62
69
DOS
N
NOSYSTEM
I changed partitions 2 and 3 to write/
read. Exiting from Disk Manager and al¬
lowing the changes to be saved to disk, I
received a MOS error message, which I
could ignore.
Finally, the tape backup software,
SYTOS, was installed. After all, the
goal of all this was to allow SYTOS to
function. To install SYTOS, I ran the in¬
stallation program from drive A. Since
SYTOS must be present on the hard disk,
I copied all the files from drive A to a
subdirectory named SYTOS on drive D.
This is working fine for me. Booting
from drive C under PC-MOS/386 allows
multitasking and other PC-MOS/386
functions. Under PC-MOS/386, my sys¬
tem will run dBASE III Plus, WordStar,
Multiplan, BASIC, Quickcode, Quick¬
silver, Chart-Master, Norton Utilities,
and other programs. The system will not
run Microsoft’s Excel. Although I
haven’t tried it, Microsoft’s Windows
probably will not run, either. Booting
from drive A under DOS using a 3V2-
inch DOS boot disk will allow the SY¬
TOS tape backup to run properly. You
can also run any other software not sup¬
ported under PC-MOS/386, such as
Microsoft’s Excel.
Arthur J. Foley
Central Is lip, NY
Thanks for the report. You do seem to
have found one alternative to OS/2. It
would be interesting to see if Win¬
dows/386 would run with this system;
probably not.
I don 't have a Model 80. — Jerry
N.B.: Nota Bene
Dear Jerry,
You once said that you just might move
up to Xy Write III Plus after all. That
would be a good move. But might I sug¬
gest a better one? Move a bit further on
and get Nota Bene.
First, some history. They say you
never forget your first love or your first
word processor. I haven’t forgotten my
first word processor, or any of the
others, but I truly love my current one,
Nota Bene. It’s extremely powerful,
smooth, fast, and (most important)
logical.
As you may know, Nota Bene is a cus¬
tomized version of Xy Write. Most com¬
mands in Nota Bene can be executed in
three ways: by typed-in commands, by
function keys, and by menus. Most oper¬
ations can be initiated by short mnemon¬
ic command codes. To give you an exam¬
ple of how easy the command codes are,
search is se, search backward is seb, ab¬
solute search (where case is matched) is
sea, and search backward absolute is
seba.
You can throw away the function key
template. (I dare you to do that with
WordPerfect.) The key use is supremely
logical. For example, the Control key
works on words; the Shift key on sen¬
tences; Control-Shift on phrases (i.e.,
material between punctuation); Alt
works on paragraphs; Shift-Alt works on
lines. These keys in combination with
other keys will move the cursor, delete,
highlight, interchange text, and so on-
all operating on the same units. It is easy
to learn these operations in minutes. It is
my understanding that Nota Bene, be¬
cause of its logical design, is infinitely
easier to use than Xy Write.
Nota Bene is designed for academic
use. It has all kinds of footnoting, index¬
ing, formatting, and printing capabilities
(there are three disks filled with printer
drivers). It has a text base that lets you
index everything you write and recall it
with a variety of Boolean-type queries. It
has its own programming language. It
has six alternate keyboards that you can
instantly access: You can type in a vari¬
ety of languages, including Greek; you
have a keyboard of math symbols. You
can also create and load your own key¬
boards.
The bad news about Nota Bene is that
the manual is over 1000 pages long. The
good news is that the program is so logi¬
cal that you can use it without reading the
manual.
With a 30-minute introduction at the
keyboard and with the reference booklet,
you can do very well. One reason is that
there are also a menu structure and help
file that are seamlessly integrated. If you
don’t remember the commands, you can
call up the menus.
Several weeks ago, my 15-year-old
son saw me writing with Nota Bene and
asked for a run-through. I gave him a 15-
minute overview, thinking that it was
enough to satisfy his request and to get
him turned back to his own word proces¬
sor. Later, when I got off the computer,
he sat down and used Nota Bene to write
a fairly long essay that was due the next
day. For sure, I had to do some prompt¬
ing, but he did a fine job. He has used
Nota Bene ever since (with little help
from me) and loves it. He doesn’t do any¬
thing fancy, but the point is that he can
navigate it alone with his relatively sim¬
ple documents. That tells you a lot about
a word processor that is so powerful.
Why am I telling you this? Because
Nota Bene is really good, and the people
at Dragonfly Software deserve success.
(Incidentally, the company’s technical
support is excellent.)
I have introduced dozens of people to
Nota Bene. I have never encountered a
single person who did not switch to it
after he or she played with it for a bit.
Joseph M. Prospero
Miami, FL
Thanks for the report.
You aren't the only one who's said
good things about Nota Bene, and in¬
deed, I've already recommended the
program to a young person writing a
dissertation.
Alas, I haven 't tried it myself, because
I don 't have it. — Jerry ■
34 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
BUFFALO
ONLY $500 PLUS $100 PER 256KB MEMORY
When you can't afford to buy a laser for each PC, the
Buffalo SL™ is the inexpensive way to let everyone
share ■ not just your lasers, but printers, plotters and
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access to shared files, the SL is also an alternative
to a LAN at a fraction of the cost.
The SL has four parallel and six serial channels, with
all ten being user configurable as either an input or
an output, so you can share 1 PC with 9 peripherals,
9 PCs with 1 peripheral, or any combination in
between. If you need more than ten channels, you
can link several SLs together. All channels can be in
use at the same time and can rapidly transfer and
queue data. The SL even allows your PC to send data
at 19,200 baud, All memory (user upgradeable up to
4MB) is dynamically allocated and shared as
needed,
The SL comes with software for menu-driven
installation and pop-up menu control selections, but
you don’t have to be a programmer to use it. Of
course, the SL works just fine without our software
too! The SL has many other features so ask us to
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When 640K just is not enough, you need to 2MB-$1200, 4MB»$21Q0, 6MB«$3000, 8MB-$39Q0
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MORE MEMORY is compatible with
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MS-DOS, PC-MOS, OS/2, Unix, Xenix, etc. It
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HYPERDISK™ enables disk drive read/write
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Circle 41 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 35
PRESENTING
AMERICAS
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CPE/MEMORY: 80286 16-bit
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coprocessor • 512KB RAM expan¬
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L1M/EMS 4.0 on the motherboard
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DOS and OS/2
EXPANSION SLOTS: Eight full-
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CPE/MEMORY: 80386-SX
16/32-bit microprocessor * 8/16MHz
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• Socket available for 80387/16 math
coprocessor * 1MB RAM expandable
to 4MB RAM {on motherboard)
• Uses 256KB or 1MB DRAMS
BIOS: AMI BIOS • Set-up Utility
and diagnostics in firmware
• ROM BIOS and video BIOS in
shadow RAM • Fully supports DOS
and OS/2
EXPANSION SLOTS: Eight full-
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PRICE: $1,495
36 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
The FIVESTAR 386/16.
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CPU/MEMORY: 80386 32-bit
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coprocessor * 1MB RAM expandable
to 10MB RAM 32-bit memory • Uses
256KB/1MB DRAMS
BIOS: AMI BIOS • Set-up utility
and diagnostics in firmware • ROM
BIOS and video BIOS in shadow RAM
• Fully supports DOS and OS/2
EXPANSION SLOTS: Six full-
length slots: one 8-bit, four 16-bit,
one 32-bit.
PRICE: $1,995
Circle 88 on Reader Service Card
The FIVESTAR 386/20.
For companies that want to reach
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leave the competition far behind.
CPE/MEMORY: 80386 32-bit
microprocessor * 6/20MHz user selec¬
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LANDMARK throughput rating
• Socket available for 80387/20 math
coprocessor • 1MB 32-bit RAM
expandable to 16MB RAM • 64KB
(static RAM) cache memory • Uses
1MB SIMMS
BIOS: AMI BIOS • Set-up utility
and diagnostics in firmware • Fully
supports DOS and OS/2
EXPANSION SLOTS:
Eight full-length slots: two
8-bit, five 16-bit, one 32-bit.
PRICE: $2,495
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equipped with:
• RS-232 serial port • Centronics
parallel printer port • 101-key enhanced
keyboard with separate numeric and
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All prices and specifications are subject to change without notice.
FIVESTAR Is a registered trademark.
Ask Byte
BYTE technical editors answer your questions on microcomputing
Proper Mindset
I recently came into a Mindset computer.
The operating manual is so deficient that
I cannot use it. Where can I get a work¬
able technical manual? Also, I need a
memory map of the computer and its ex¬
pansion unit. A schematic would be nice,
too.
C. Bradner Brown
Kensington , MD
Your best bet would be to link up with a
computer group in your area ( check
Computer Shopper for a list of club meet¬
ings) or to investigate the orphan com¬
puter special-interest groups on Compu¬
Serve. Barring that, I believe a Mindset
computer is still on display in the New
York Museum of Modern Art as an ex¬
ample of innovative package design . Per¬
haps you could see if the museum needs a
backup.— R. G.
Incompatible Drive?
I have several Shugart Associates Model
450R floppy disk drives that have been
used on a computer for writing to Unix,
MS-DOS, and PC-DOS floppy disks. I
don’t seem to be able to jumper any
one of them so that it will be accepted
as a valid disk drive on my IBM PC AT
clone, which is a PC’s Limited system.
I’ve tried listing the drive on my setup
menu as a 360K-byte disk drive. Is it pos¬
sible to use these disk drives on my
machine?
M. W. P. Strandberg
Cambridge, MA
The Shugart SA450 should work with
your system as a 360K-byte drive, pro¬
vided that your controller can support an
additional drive set to 360K bytes. My
guess is that you have improperly
jumpered the drive select lines. These are
controlled by the jumper header labeled
2D on the floppy disk drive's printed
circuit board.
To enable drive select 0, short pins 2
and 13; to enable drive select 1, short
pins 3 and 12. If your floppy disk drive
cable is like most, it has a “twist” in it
between the first and second floppy disk
drive connectors, in which case you need
to jumper both drives for drive select 0.
(Nothing's easy anymore, is it?) You'll
also want to cut the jumper between pins
6 and 9, which would otherwise cause the
drive to respond to any drive select sig¬
nal. Finally, make sure that only the last
drive on the daisy-chained cable has a ter¬
minating resistor pack installed (this is 1C
3D on the 405). Good luck.— R. G./S. W.
IN ASK BYTE, BYTE editors answer questions
on any area of microcomputing. The most rep¬
resentative questions will be answered and pub¬
lished. Send your inquiry to
Ask BYTE
One Phoenix Mill Lane
Peterborough, NH 03458
Due to the high volume of inquiries, we can¬
not guarantee a personal reply. All letters and
photographs become the property of BYTE and
cannot be returned.
More Lines, Please
After my pleasant experiences writing
EGA and VGA graphics routines using
QuickBASIC 4.0, I was disappointed to
find that Microsoft C version 5.1 (run¬
ning under DOS) offers no obvious way
to alter the number of text lines on a
graphics display. I suspect it’s just a mat¬
ter of making the correct DOS call with
the right parameters. Am I correct?
JohnJ. Ottusch
Malibu, CA
Richard Wilton is an excellent source for
the kind of information you need. I sug¬
gest you check the following articles and
books:
“ PS/2 Video Programming,” BYTE's In¬
side the IBM PCs, Fall 1987
“VGA Video Modes, ” BYTE's IBM Spe¬
cial Edition, Fall 1988
Programmer’s Guide to PC and PS/2
Video Systems (Microsoft Press, Red¬
mond, WA: 1987)
In particular, Wilton 's BYTE articles
cover the topic of changing the number of
text lines on the display. —R. G.
FFTWoes
I am a senior electrical engineering stu¬
dent at the Milwaukee School of Engi¬
neering. One of the requirements for
graduation is the successful completion
of a full-year design sequence that re¬
sults in a working prototype.
I am working on a “digital demodula¬
tor” project that is based on an article in
the September 1986 IEEE Transactions
on Instrumentation and Measurement .
It’s essentially a radio receiver that de¬
tects the information on a carrier using
digital signal processing techniques in¬
stead of conventional analog demodula¬
tion circuitry.
Part of the project will involve using
the fast Fourier transform for spectral
analysis, but apparently the FFT is a real
time burner. I need information on FFT
algorithms and, in particular, on imple¬
menting FFT algorithms in assembly
language. In addition, do you have any
information on predicting FFT response
time?
Eric R. Schumann
Milwaukee, Wl
Steve Ciarcia's “ Computers on the
Brain " articles (starting in the June 1 988
BYTE) cover the FFT algorithm in some
detail. Also look into “Faster Than Fast
Fourier” (April 1988 BYTE).
E. Oran Brigham 's The Fast Fourier
Transform (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Pren¬
tice Hall, 1974) is an exhaustive explora¬
tion of Fourier transform techniques as
well as the FFT. It contains the source
code for the FFT algorithm (in ALGOL
and FORTRAN).
Finally, see if you can locate a copy of
Minicomputer Systems, Organization,
Programming, and Applications by Rich¬
ard H. Eckerhouse Jr. and L. Robert
Morris (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice
Hall, 1979). It contains a brief dis¬
cussion of the FFT but includes PDP/ 11-
compatible assembly language source
continued
38 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
When 30MB just won’t do...
Seagate^ ST251 Family
of 40, 60 and 80MB drives
If 30 megabytes just isn’t enough to satisfy
your disc storage requirements, then Seagate's
5.25"ST251 family offers the capacity, performance
and interface options you need for any operating
environment.
The cornerstone of our family is the best¬
selling ST251. Available in both ST412 and SCSI
interfaces, with either 28 or 40 msec access
time, this 42MB drive is perfect for demanding
applications.
For 50% more capacity, our ST277 features
64MB of formatted storage, with the same access
time options as the ST251. And for performance-
driven, high-capacity applications, our 84MB
ST296 has a 28 msec access time and an SCSI
interface.
Each drive in the family comes complete with
utility software for easy installation and drive
partitioning. You can configure the right solu¬
tion for your computer system by choosing from
Seagate’s own line of controllers and adapters for
the ST251 family.
No matter which model you choose, you’ll
receive the same high quality and reliability that
have made Seagate the first name in disc drives
worldwide. For more information on the ST251
family, contact your authorized Seagate Distributor,
or call Seagate at 800-468-DISC.
<2? Seagate
The first name in disc drives
Circle 108 on Reader Service Card
ASK BYTE
Integrand’s new Chassis/System is not another
IBM mechanical and electrical clone. An
entirely fresh packaging design approach has
been taken using modular construction. At
present, over 40 optional stock modules allow
you to customize our standard chassis to nearly
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applications and technical support all at prices
competitive with imports. Why settle for less?
Rack & Desk
PC/AT Chassis
F
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code for an FFT butterfly. You might be
able to use this code as a jumping-off
point to whatever processor you ’ re
using.— R. G.
Good Old Model III
I have several questions. First, where can
I get inexpensive parts for project con¬
struction? Second, I have an old Tandy
TRS-80 Model III, and I wonder if its
Z80 CPU will work with the programs in
Steve Ciarcia’s book. Finally, the Model
III is 8 years old. I’d like to know if
there’s any way I can upgrade it.
Michael L. Hudin
Oroville, CA
Check out the advertisements in the back
of BYTE and other computer and elec¬
tronics magazines for distributors of
parts.
Fm not sure to which of Steve Ciarcia ’s
books you are referring , so 1 can 't advise
you about software. The TRS-80 Model
III was a fine computer for its time.
Tandy still supports the machine , and
you can order more RAM , floppy and
hard disk drive kits , and an RS-232C
board from your Tandy Computer Center
or Radio Shack dealer. Another source
for parts is Aerocomp (2544 West Com¬
merce St. , P. O. Box 223957, Dallas, TX
75212, (214) 637-5400). -S. W.
Teaching an Old BIOS New Tricks
I have a 6-year-old IBM PC that has 16K-
byte RAM chips on the motherboard. I
want to increase the base memory to
640K bytes through the use of an Everex
board, but I am told that my ROM BIOS
will not allow me to get above about
545K bytes. I need updated ROM chips,
but IBM no longer supports them, and I
haven’t been able to find them locally. I
hardly think I’m the only one in this po¬
sition; there must be many such ma¬
chines still in use. Can you refer me to a
source for the chips I need?
W. E. Van Horne
Columbus, OH
When IBM first introduced the IBM PC,
the original BIOS limited system mem¬
ory to 544K bytes. IBM never expected
that anyone would want more RAM. Up¬
grade BIOS ROM chips are available
from Mentor Electronics (7560 Tyler
Blvd., Suite E, Mentor, OH 44060, (216)
951-1 884). -S. W.
More Interface Cables
I am an electrical engineering student at
the University of Illinois. I have finally
decided to construct several of the proj¬
ects presented by Steve Ciarcia, and I
want to interface them to my Macintosh
SE. What can I do to make the standard
RS-232C connections match the RS-422
mini DIN-8 connector on the back of my
computer? I also wonder about how this
nonstandard input via the modem port
affects the communications protocol and
toolbox interface with the Microsoft
FORTRAN and Turbo Pascal environ¬
ments with which I am familiar.
Last semester, I worked on a sleep¬
monitoring project through the College
of Medicine, and I’d like to continue with
some research on my own with the HAL
EEG presented in the June 1988 BYTE. I
understand that some time ago, Steve
Ciarcia wrote an article describing the
measurement of other bodily functions.
In which issue of BYTE can I find this
article?
Peter Apostolakis
Long Grove, IL
The RS-422 A standard arose out of the
need to send serial signals at higher rates
and through longer lengths of cable. It
does this by using differential voltages to
provide noise immunity. However, the
RS-422A standard was also designed to
be electrically compatible with the older
RS-232C standard. This is done by pick-
ing off the unbalanced negative portions
of the transmitted and received data sig¬
nals. This reduces the problem of obtain¬
ing RS-232C-compatible signals from the
Mac SE ’ s serial port to a matter of build¬
ing the appropriate cable. Fve success¬
fully built cables that connected a Macin¬
tosh serial port to a PC serial port for
data transfers.
For a Mac mini DIN-8 to DB-25 RS-
232C cable, you need to purchase con¬
nectors for the cable. You can get the DB-
25 connector from any electronics supply
shop. Getting your hands on a male mini
DIN-8 connector is a lot harder, and def¬
initely more expensive. You can get an
Apple System Peripheral-8 cable, product
number MO 197, for $29 from an Apple
dealer. This cable has a mini DIN-8 con¬
nector at each end. Cut the cable in half,
pick the half to which you want to attach
the DB-25 connector, and store the other
half in a safe place. See figure 1 and table
1 for pin-out information.
The Mac has its own drivers that
handle I/O through the serial ports. The
extent to which you can send and receive
data or manipulate control signals
through these ports depends on how well
the programming language has imple¬
mented its interface to the Mac's serial
drivers. Check the details in your pro¬
gramming language manual. You can
continued
40 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
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Circle 175 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 41
Circle 107 on Reader Service. Card
ASK BYTE
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Bl Bl ^B SI ^B
MB IB
Figure 1: DIN-S connector pin-out
diagram ,
Table 1: Wiring the Macintosh
DINS to a DB-25 connector
Involves connecting the pins as
shown. Note that the signal names
are from the Mac1 S point of view.
Null
Signal
Name
DIN-8
pin
DB-25
pin
modem
function
HSK
2
20
DTR
handshake
for printer
TxD-
3
3
Null modem
GND
4
7
Signal ground
RxD-
5
2
Null modem
also look into Inside Macintosh, volume
II, starting on page 243 for good infor¬
mation on the Macintosh serial drivers.
Steve Ciarcia previous article on bio¬
feedback, “Mind Over Matter, " ap¬
peared in the June 1979 BYTE. —7. T.
Vve Got This Spare, . .
I have an Amiga IQGO with 512K bytes of
internal memory. I also have an extra
Amiga Model 1050 256K-byte RAM
cartridge, the one that plugs into the
front of the machine. ITd like to knowr if
there is any way I can modify the spare
pack so that I can use it to increase my
memory to 768K bytes.
R. James de Graff
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The odds are you 7/ do more harm than
good trying to modify the board. [ recom¬
mend getting one of the sidecar memory
boxes that attach to the expansion con¬
nector on the right of the machine . Keep
your spare cartridge as just that: a spare <
If you b e still determined to hack your
machine's memory , check out the article
'Build Your Own 256K Amiga Expan¬
sion RAM” in the February 1987 BYTE.
—A G.
Rays and Buses
I am interested in ray tracing, a very cal¬
culation-intensive computer application
that is similar, in some respects, to the
problem of generating pictures of the
Mandelbrot set; it can be done using a
multiprocessor board (like the one de¬
scribed by Steve Ciarcia in “A Supercom¬
puter, Part 1 ” in the October 1988 BYTE).
I have an Apple Macintosh II, which
uses the NuBus, I’ve been programming
the Mac for years, but since the previous
versions of the Mac had no slots, I know
nothing about hardware. I hear that de¬
signing and programming NuBus cards
is easy, but I don't know where to begin.
Could you suggest some reading mate¬
rial for programmers who, like me, have
never soldered anything, let alone built
any hardware? Could you also present an
article describing how to build a simple
NuBus test card for the Mac II? Or how
about a multiprocessing board like the
one Steve Ciarcia built to generate Man¬
delbrot sets?
Ajay Nath
Oakland Gardens, NY
Unfortunately, designing and program¬
ming NuBus cards is not easy. The soft¬
ware interaction with boards is compli¬
cated , and you need an intimate
understanding of how the hardware oper¬
ates. But the end result of all this effort is
a card that you can plug into a Mac If
without requiring you to tinker with
switches on the board or run complex
con figu ra tion application s.
As for your request for an article on
this subject , I've got good news for you.
The design of a simple NuBus test card is
described in the Macintosh Special Edi¬
tion (December 1988 BYTE), If you need
additional information, you can consult
the books Designing Cards and Drivers
for the Macintosh II and Macintosh by
the Apple Computer staff ( Reading f MA:
Addison- Wes ley, 1987) and Macintosh
Family Hardware Reference, also by
Apple Computer (Reading, MA: Addison-
Wesley t 1 988), These should at least give
you an idea of what is involved in such a
project, and sample code is provided to
help you get started. — T. T,
Vertical vSp Horizontal Drives
My AT takes up entirely too much room
on my desk, and the fan and my new
continued
42 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1939
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Circle 33 on Reader Service Card
BayTech
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MiniScribe 43-megabyte full-height
hard disk drive make more noise than I’d
like. I’ve been considering buying one of
those vertical stand brackets to put my
machine under or beside my desk. How¬
ever, I know that quite often the bearings
in various types of machinery are de¬
signed to carry their load in only one po¬
sition and if turned 90 degrees can fail
rapidly. Disk drives, both floppy and
hard, appear to be designed for horizon¬
tal installation; and since the bearings
are obviously small, they might be prone
to early failure if mounted vertically.
Floppy disk drives, due to their intermit¬
tent running, might not be as much of a
problem as hard disk drives. Am I worry¬
ing needlessly?
Is it possible to use a program to stop
the hard disk drive from running con¬
stantly? I don’t want to sound like a ner¬
vous Nelly, but the idea of that expensive
thing sitting in there spinning madly 8
hours per day while I type makes me
wonder how long it can live. Having it
run when data is actually being accessed
is one thing, but if I’m just writing and
only occasionally saving to disk, why
have the hard disk spinning needlessly?
I notice that most of the new 80386
computers built with tower cases have the
drives mounted horizontally. They also
have their switches mounted on the front,
where they belong. As much as having a
new 80386 machine appeals to the
techno-freak in me, I simply cannot jus¬
tify buying one to get that slick tower
case. Can you tell me where I can buy a
tower case like that? Three companies—
Fortron, Logix, and Zeos— have tower
cases that appear identical and suitable. I
contacted Logix, but the company won’t
sell bare cases. Surely these three obtain
their cases from the same source. Do you
know where?
Harmon Seaver
Grand Marais , MN
Some disk drives can withstand vertical
mounting; others cannot. That informa¬
tion should be included in the specifica¬
tions. If not, check with the disk driv<-
manufacturer.
Your hard disk’s read/write head b
floating on a cushion of air— created by
the spinning platter— against zero fric¬
tion. In this environment, the drive will
not be exposed to abnormal wear and
tear. In fact, your drive will experience
greater wear if it is continually stopped
and started as you propose. The roughest
treatment of your drive occurs at power
on, and the culprit is not so much friction
as heat. Drive manufacturers go to great
continued
44 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 60 on Reader Service Card
THE #I PROJECT MANAGER IS BEHIND
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FEBRUARY 1989 ' BYTE 45
Circle 54 on Reader Service Card
“IT MAKES PROCOMM LOOK
LIKE AMATEURCOM.”
If you talk to a DEC mainframe, no software emulates
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Why not join the 60,000 users of VTERM (many of
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61 1 Broadway, New York, New York 10012 (212) 777-6707 bym/s-J
* VTERM refers to VTERM/220, VTERM/4010, etc. products from Coefficient Systems Corporation.
Procomm is a trademark of Datastorm Technologies, Inc.
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The handiest liltle wanner in the world juvl got even
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We give you the features you need the most m a
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The Handy Scanner 3000 comes complete with lull-
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arc compatible with almost all graphics software, in¬
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The Handy Scanner 3000 is a little scanner that does ,
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ASK BYTE
lengths to ensure proper heat compensa¬
tion. Some of the new laptops shut down
the drive motor when it is not in use, but
they do this to preserve power, not to pro¬
tect the drive. I do not recommend that
you routinely shut down the drive motor.
I suggest you get a head parking utility.
You can find these programs in the public
domain. After a specified time of disk ac¬
tivity, the software will park your disk
heads until a disk access is requested. A
commercial product of this type is Safe-
park from Prime Solutions. Safepark po¬
sitions the head over a selected sector that
does not contain data. Power surges and
sudden spikes can write random bits to
your drive. If the bits are written to a sec¬
tor where your data resides, that data is
corrupted. Safepark moves the heads to
the “safe zone ” whenever the disk is not
in use. I mention the product because it is
included with a very useful disk utility
package called Disk Technician.
Hard disks are most vulnerable to bad
sectors. Some utilities, such as the Norton
Utilities, will let you partition off bad
sectors. Once you have done this, you can
no longer access that sector. Disk Techni¬
cian, on the other hand, performs pre¬
ventive maintenance on the disk. It will
monitor disk access errors and keep track
of them. When DOS fails to read a sector,
it will keep trying 30 to 50 times. If it fi¬
nally does read the disk successfully,
DOS goes on its merry way, not con¬
cerned about the access problem. Disk
Technician will recognize the problem,
differentiate between random errors and
repeating errors, and then attempt to re¬
pair the error before it becomes a major
problem. First it moves the data to a good
sector, then it tries to repair the sector by
performing a low-level format. If it can 7
repair the sector, it maps the sector out. I
recommend the program for all those ner¬
vous Nellies who dread the thought of los¬
ing valuable data from hard disks.
Many independent mail-order compa¬
nies sell the tower case. You just have to
look around. I found one such case in a
JDR Microdevices catalog (see the com¬
pany's ads in the back of BYTE). The
$299.95 cost includes a 250-watt power
supply, speed display, mounting hard¬
ware, faceplates, and a speaker. Make
sure that you also find some cables that
are long enough to accommodate the
tower design. We keep getting these won¬
derful space-saving tower systems with
cables so short that we can 't place them
on the floor where they belong. It will be
frustrating if you invest in the tower case
but end up with a bulky system on your
desktop anyway, so you should keep
cables in mind. —S. D. ■
46 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 236 on Reader Service Card
% 'M ml **
' V Wl 'l|
/ Vl wli
wm i/ f/w''
4 t W-y' ;/ ¥ ff
m
There you are sitting
happily with your laptop in the
sky, preparing some figures for
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Things could be better. If
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you would have been prepared.
Battery Watch operates
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Its pop-up window lets you see
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It’ll also help you get
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Circle 235 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 47
At Vendex we design every computer as a
herals
you
complete system. We integrate peripl
usually offered only as options. All yi
have to add is electricity. So your
HeadStart III " is productive from the
moment you open the box.
Convenience.The Headstart nr
incorporates both a 12 megabyte
5.25-inch and a 1.44 megabyte
3.5-inch floppy drive, both
standard, so you
don't have to
choose between
the two.Our "bridge
technology" lets
youbootadisk
from either drive
and software
select your drive configuration.
In addition, the low profile and small footprint of the
HeadStart III" make it iaeal for even the smallest
workstation.
svr and ZVf DisMriw
Both Standard
Performance. The heart of the HeadStart
system is a 12MHz 80286 processor with a
hefty one megabyte of standard RAM.
Our hard drive system delivers a
full 32 megabytes of storage
operating at 28 milliseconds with
astonishingl tolinterleave and a 32K buffer.
But we dori t stop there.
True 16 bit built-in VGA Graphics is component matched for
high speed and clarity. Even our 101-key PS/2 type keyboard has
been tailored for speed and durability
Flexibility. Virtually any combination of peripherals can
be attached without ever opening the computer. Two serial
ports, one parallel port, abus mouse port and even a game port
are all standard.
Expandability. The HeadStart III" is engineered for youi
ny diverse peripherals that are available today and tomorrow
In fact, the HeadStart HI" is truly OS/2 ready You can
add two full megabytes of RAM without having tobuy any
additional boards.
Circle 239 on Reader Service Card
SPECIFICATIONS
MICROPROCESSOR fntcLB02»642
SPEED : 1 2M Hz i B Swi khz bl e
BIOS: Award
BUILT IN' RAM: 1 Megabyte
EXPANDABLE TO: 3 megabytes
POWER SUPPLY: 14S watts 130 220swi tellable
KEYBOARD: lOlkey PSU compatible
GRAPHICS: VGA AulOiync
FLO PPY D RIVES: On* 5. 25 1 2 mega byte,
one 3.5" 1.4-1 megabyte
HARD DRIVE: 324 megabyte, 28 millisecond*,
1:1 interleave
BUILT IN INTERFACES: Parallel, 2- RS232seriai,
mouse, joystick
EXPANSION SLOTS; 3 available
SOFTWARE; DOS 3.3,G W Basic, Head Star! Advanced
Environment, Floppy Driver, Framework II,
3-D G raphks, ATI a nd Co m puter-EE Z Tu tori a 1
Sof I w are. XI re* ba rd dif k ma nage r, Pu bl istv'il 1
C h essmaster 20M, Sp lash VC A pa i nt prog ra m .
Bookmark, plus Twist and Shout,
MOUSE: Standard
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Headstart Hi
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joins beyond DOS which is
idard, an unprecedented package of 14
programs worth thousands of dollars ai
Value. Goinj
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Support. Our
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.VENDEX
are included
HeadStartw
Built to be compatible with you.
For more
information
about the
HeadStart IIF
and our full line
of advanced
computer systems,
or to find the nearest
dealer, call toll-free
1-800-882-1888.
Can you think
of a reason not to?
HEADSTART ADVANCED OPERATING ENVIRONMENT is a trademark of Vender Technologies, Iftt IBM is a trademark ml
liurnulional Business MachinesCorp MS DOS 3, Sand G'W BASIC are Irademarfcsof Mkiusofi. Inc FRAMEWORK 11 is a
trademark of AshtonTate 3-D C Ft APHIS is a trademark of Perspective. FLOPPY DRIVE R is a trademark of Concept T*dti»fc$ie$
X-TREEUj trademark of E vecuttve Systems Inc . SPLASH ! is a trademark d Sp innate Software Corporal ion- CONtPLTEREASE
ts a trademark of Airakis Technologies. CH E5SM ASTER 200], MAVIS BEACON TEACHES TYPING and TWIST & SHOUT are
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All Right * Reserved . VENUE A TECHNOLOGIES. INC. TOCulter MB! Road. Suited, Great Ned, New York HOB.
QUICK ACCESS
EASY EDIT
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FEBRUARY 1989
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Circle 98 on Reader Service Card
Book Reviews
No Way: The Nature
of the Impossible
Edited by Philip J. Davis
and David Park
Wt H. Freeman and Co. ,
New York; 1987, 325 pages,
$10.95
Reviewed by David A. Mindell
It is impossible to climb Mt.
Everest without oxygen* It
is impossible to make music at
a rate greater than 10,000 bits
per second. It is impossible to
create a stable, strained- layer
superlattice.
These statements refer to
achievements that were once
considered beyond the practi¬
cal, physical, or conceptual
boundaries of possibility. To
those who pronounced them or
accepted them as being true,
such statements defined the
limits of our “real" and logi¬
cal world.
Each statement, however,
has since been proved wrong.
In 1979, Reinhold Messner
and Peter Habeler climbed
Everest without oxygen. Mod¬
ern electronic synthesizers
create music (or at least sound)
with more information content
than that of a symphony or¬
chestra* Scientists have fabri¬
cated strained-layer super-
lattices in the laboratory*
Thus, we have expanded what
we define as the possible; we
have made inroads into the
dark region of impossibility,
pushing back the once-solid
walls of the unreal*
No Way: The Nature of the
Impossible, edited by Philip J*
Davis and David Park, is a col¬
lection of essays by prominent
authors in widely varying
fields* Each writer engages
impossibility with language
and methods specific to his or
her own specialty. The result
is a fascinating and thorough
dialogue about a concept that
transcends, limits, and even
defines endeavors including
mountain climbing, medi¬
cine, technology, parenting,
and artificial intelligence*
The book begins with a
chapter entitled “Everest and
the Impossible" by Scott
Lankford, a climber and a vet¬
eran of a failed 1985 attempt
on the mountain. Lankford re¬
calls the sense of melancholy
that accompanied the triumph
of Everest* s first ascent, for it
seemed the last great earthly
obstacle, the last of nature’s
impossibilities. The instant
Edmund Hillary and Tensing
ALSO REVIEWED
Programmer’s Guide to OS/2
Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams
Better Scientific and Technical Writing
C Traps and Pitfalls
What Do You Care What Other People Think?
Norgay mounted the summit
in 1953, Everest entered the
realm of the possible. The
mountain was not conquered,
however, for at that same in¬
stant arose new impossibil¬
ities: Everest without oxygen,
Everest alone, Everest “the
hard way*” As Lankford says,
“Climbers don’t conquer the
impossible, they invent it.”
Lankford’s essay sets the
tone of the book; the mountain
is a particularly apt model for
the impossible. The base is ac¬
cessible, but the peak is not*
The edge of the possible thus
lies somewhere in between,
graded on the gradual slope.
Lankford describes his own
encounter with this boundary
when, with the realization that
he and his party could not
reach the summit, "The door
to the invisible became visible ,
like the summit of Everest it¬
self suddenly torn from the
clouds.” The impossible is not
always a wall or a cliff, but
more often is like the slope of a
mountain. This feature, of
progressive, almost exponen¬
tial steepness, lets us approach
and even drive back the im¬
possible while never overcom¬
ing it.
In another essay , Michael J.
Katz asserts that evolution of
any organism would be pos¬
sible were it not for the limits
oft he physical world. "Hedge¬
hogs that run faster than the
speed of light,” for example,
could evolve if they were phys¬
ically possible.
Michael Yarmolinsky takes
a similar approach but delves
more into the limits of the evo¬
lutionary process* He impres¬
sively relates evolution to what
he calls the “central dogma”
of molecular biology, namely
Francis Crick’s generaliza¬
tion that information can flow
only from DNA to RNA into
proteins and not the other way
(i.e. , “protein cannot serve as
continued
ILLUSTRATION; CHRIS SCHMIDT © 1989
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE SI
BOOK REVIEWS
The Acknowledged
Leader in the Computer
Mail Order Industry
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Circle 229 for MS DOS Products,
(All others: 230)
a template for its own replica¬
tion”), Thus, the reader ar¬
rives at Charles Darwin's
famous break from earlier
(Lamarckian) theories of evo¬
lution: “It is impossible for ac¬
quired characteristics to direct
evolution/'
Physicist Michael Sturge’s
contribution explores several
cases of the impossible in tech¬
nology, He discusses the semi¬
conductor laser, an example of
the most straightforward type
of technological impossibil¬
ity— the limits of current tech¬
nology. Skeptics (including
Sturge himself) pronounced
the semiconductor laser to be
impossible because of limits
of crystal purity and opacity.
The convergence of improved
crystal growth with advances
in solid-state physics, how¬
ever, overcame these hurdles.
The front ier of the possible ex¬
tended to include the semicon¬
ductor laser, now a common
element of optical disk drives
and CD players.
Paradoxically, technologi¬
cal impossibility often arises
from social and human factors
rather than physical or natural
properties. Sturge cites the
above-mentioned strained-
layer superlattice, which
many experts declared impos¬
sible simply because they got
their basic physics wrong; they
neglected the minimum en¬
ergy required to produce a
damaging dislocation. Sturge
also discusses the failure of
Bell Labs to pursue research
into large-scale ICs. Appar¬
ently the organizational and
management structure could
not admit certain kinds of
change (the infamous Not In¬
vented Here syndrome). In
that sense, what is possible in
today's technological world is
what our socially determined
institutions can develop and
exploit: weapons, commercial
products, medical instru¬
ments, and so on, A new tech¬
nological development might
not fit neatly into such catego¬
ries or might not lend itself to
the methods modern society
has evolved for capitalizing on
i n novation , Such a tech nology
might find itself confined to a
narrower possibility and to
more imposing impossibilities
than one that lies within tradi¬
tional political, industrial,
and financial flows.
The scientific and technical
chapters of No Way have a
common element: the expo¬
nential mountainside of im¬
possibility. Some statements
are clearly impossible and al¬
ways will be: “You can't put a
thousand gallons of water into
a pint bottle . ” These are scien-
tifically uninteresting, for
they arise out of definitions,
language, and logic, and will
yield little when examined. In
contrast, the impossibilities
that define the limits of our
knowledge are truly engaging:
“There is no cure for AIDS/1
These problems are constantly
revealing, shifting, and, we
hope, receding; they occupy
and define the borderlines of
possibility. In David Park's
words, “ . . that narrow strip,
on either side of the border , is
where science lies.”
No Way is not all about sci¬
ence, however. It also covers
law, politics, economics, edu¬
cation, poetry, music, and
philosophy. Through the com¬
mon theme, the authors intro¬
duce the reader to a bioad
range of discourses and the
specific languages with vfhieh
they operate. Furthermore,
because the “impossible” is
by its nature an abstract and
even absent topic, the reader
sees each discipline defined as
a shadow , groping in the dark
for the unreachable. He or she
is left with a lasting impres¬
sion of the academic disci¬
plines, disparate in their lan¬
guage, yet converging in their
attempts to know the un¬
knowable.
BRIEFLY NOTED
Programmer’s Guide to
OS/2 by Michael J . Young ,
Sybex, San Francisco, CA:
1988 , 625 pages, $24.95. If
the complexity of a software
product were measured by the
number and size of the books
written about it, there could be
continued
VAX Power - PC Price!
If you need or are accustomed to the
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DEC’S VAX series, MicroWay has great news
for you. The combination of our NDP compilers
and our mW1 167 numeric coprocessor gives
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and AT upgrade paths.
MicroWay offers transputer based parallel
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Many NDP Fortran-386 users are reporting
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processor being used, the speed of the 386,
the number of users served by the VAX, and
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Dr. Robert Atwell, leading defense scientist,
calculates that NDP Fortran-386 is saving him
$ 12,000 per month in rentals of VAX
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Fred Ziegler of AspenTech in Cambridge,
Mass, reports, "I ported 900,000 lines of
Fortran source in two weeks without a single
problem!" AspenTech' s Chemical Modeling
System is in use on mainframes worldwide
and is probably the largest application to ever
run on an Intel processor.
Dr. Jerry Ginsberg of Georgia Tech reports,
"My problems run a factor of six faster using
NDP Fort ran -386 on an mW1 167 equipped
386/20 than they do on my Micro VAX II. "
Our NDP compilers and NDP utilities are the
key to taking advantage of the two to five-fold
increase in speed that the mW1 167 provides.
The compilers generate mainframe style code,
while our utilities simplify ports from either the
PC or the mainframe world. A new utility
enables our NDP compilers to call HALO 88.
If you are curious about the benefits of the
NDP/mW1167 approach, consider the follow¬
ing (price estimates are for complete systems):
Coprocessor
Speed (Flops)
Price
80287-10
80387-20
mWl 167-20
80,000
440,000
2,100,000
$3,000
$5,000
$6,000
When driven by a 32-bit compiler, the
m W1 1 67 approaches the speed of a $600,000
VAX 8650! In fact, many of our users have
reported increases in turnaround of 2 to 4 times
that of their VAX! Call us for complete details.
32-Bit Compilers and Tools
NDP Fortran-386™ and NDP C-386™ Com¬
pilers generate globally optimized, mainframe
quality code. Both run in 386 protected mode
under Phar Lap extended MS-DOS, UNIX, or
XENIX. The memory model employed uses 2
segments, each of which can be up to 4
gigabytes. They generate code for the 80287,
80387, or mW1 167. Both include high speed
EGA graphics extensions written in C that per¬
form BASIC-like screen operations.
• NDP Fortran-386™ Full implementation of
FORTRAN-77 with Berkeley 4.2, VAX/VMS
and Fortran-66 extensions . $595
• NDP C-386™ Full implementation of AT&T’s
PCC with MS and ANSI extensions. . . . $595
NDP Package Pricing:
387FastPAK. NDP Compiler, Phar Lap and
80387 Coprocessor 16 MHz: $1299
20 MHz: $1499
1167FastPAK: NDP Compiler, Phar Lap
and mW1 167 Coprocessor 16 MHz: $1695
20 MHz: $2295
Phar Lap Development Tools . $495
Virtual Memory Extension $295
NDP Windows™ — NDP Windows includes 80
functions that let you create, store, and recall
menus and windows. It works with NDP C-386
and drives all the popular graphics adapters:
. Library: $1 25, C Source: $250
NDP Plot™ — Calcomp compatible plot pack¬
age that is callable from NDP Fortran. It in¬
cludes drivers for the most popular plotters and
printers and works with CGA, Hercules, EGA
and VGA . $325
NDP/FFT™ — Includes 40 fast running, hand
coded algorithms for single and double dimen¬
sioned FFTs which take advantage of the 32-
bit addressing of the 386 or your hard disk. Call¬
able from NDP Fortran with mW1167 and
80387 support . $250
387FFT for 16-bit compilers . $250
HALO 88 to NDP Graphics Interface — This
module enables you to call graphics routines in
HALO 88 from NDP Fortran or C . $100
' MicroWay ® '
80386 Support
v (508) 746-7341 _ y
Parallel Processing
Monoputer2™
The world’s most popular PC transputer
development product now extends the memory
available for developing transputer applica¬
tions from 2 to 16 megabytes. The board now
features a DMA bus interface for fast I/O.
Monoputer 2, an ideal platform for porting
mainframe Fortran or C code, provides the
speed of a 386/20 for 20% of the cost!
Monoputer 2 with T414 (0 MB) . $995
Monoputer 2 with T800 (0 MB) .... $1495
Quadputer™
This board for the XT, AT, or 386 can be pur¬
chased with 2, 3 or 4 transputers and 1 , 4 or 8
megabytes of memory per transputer. Two or
more Quadputers can be linked together to
build networks with mainframe power which
use up to 100 or more transputers. One
customer’s application has gone from 8 hours
on a mainframe to 1 6 minutes on a system con¬
taining five Quadputers . from $3495
Transputer Compilers and Applications
MicroWay offers Parallel languages for the
Monoputer and Quadputer.
Logical Systems Parallel C . $595
MicroWay Occam2 . $495
3L Parallel C . $895
3L Parallel Fortran . $895
MicroWay Prolog Interpreter . $750
Microfield - Finite element analysis . . $1600
ParaSoft: Parallel Environment .... $300
Performance Monitor . . . $200
C Source Level Debugger $300
T800/NAG™(See NDP/NAG) . $2750
387BASIC™ — Our 16-bit MS compatible
compiler introduces numeric register variables
to produce the fastest running 80x87 code on
the market . $249
Compaq 386/20/25 Add-Ons
RAMpak™- One megabyte 32-bit memory
module fits in Compaq memory slot . . CALL
mW1 167™ is built at MicroWay using Weitek
components and includes an 80387 socket.
mWl 167-16 . $995
mWl 167-20 . $1595
mW1167 Microchannel-16 . $1295
mW1167 Microchannel-20 . $1595
Weitek 31 67-25 . $2495
80387-20 . $595
80387-25 . $695
Numeric Coprocessors
8087 . $99
8087-2 . $145
80287-8 . $239
80287-10 . $279
80387-16 . $425
80387-1 6SX . $450
80387-20 . $595
80387-25 . $695
287Turbo-12 (for AT compatibles) .... $450
256K 100ns DRAM . $13
256K SIMMS . $119
1MB SIMMS . $450
(All of our Intel coprocessors include 87Test.)
Intelligent Serial Controllers
MicroWay’s AT4™, AT8™, and ATI 6™, the
fastest intelligent serial controllers, run in AT,
80386 and PS/2 PCs. They come with drivers
for UNIX, XENIX, and PC MOS.
AT4 ... $795 AT8 ... $995 AT16...$1295
32-Bit Applications
PSTAT-386 — Popular mainframe statistics
package. The full version was ported . . . $1495
NDP/NAG™ — Features a library of 268 en¬
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BOOK REVIEWS
no doubt that OS/2 is a compl i-
cated beast. The first few
books written about it seemed
to be almost extensions— both
in style and bulk— of the OS/2
specification and the docu¬
mentation shipped with its
early versions.
Michael J. Young’s new
book exhibits a maturity in its
presentation that earlier books
have lacked. He speaks with
the authority that comes from
having done some serious
OS/2 programming. Instead
of just stating the purpose of
an OS/2 function call, Young
actually describes how it
might be used in real code. For
example, instead of stating
that DosQHandType deter¬
mines if standard output has
been redirected lo a file, he de¬
scribes a situation in which
you might need to discover i f a
child process's output is redi¬
rected by its parent process to
a disk file so the parent can
continue to write to the screen
without interference from the
child. The description goes on
to warn that using DosWr i te is
better than a similar video I/O
call because DosWrite’s out¬
put can be redirected, while
VIO calls always write to the
screen. These subtle insights
can be useful.
The book also offers a fair
amount of code, most of it in
C, not assembly language.
Some of the code is long and
complex, like the eut-and-
paste utility that spans lll/2
pages, A companion disk con¬
tains all the listings, including
header, make, and definition
files.
Of the book’s 625 pages,
250 pages are appendixes de¬
voted to summarizing API
calls and error messages. But
the preceding 375 pages con¬
tain a lot of practical advice for
the aspiring OS/2 program¬
mer, —G. Michael Vose
Peopleware: Productive
Projects and Teams by Tom
DeMarco and Timothy Lister ,
Dorset House Publishing Co . ,
New York: 1987 , 188 pages,
$23. Peopleware is the Mythi¬
cal Man-Month for the 1990s.
Just as Fred Brooks was emi¬
nently qualified to write his
book on software-project
management. Tom DeMarco
and Timothy Lister, interna¬
tionally known software con¬
sultants, are similarly quali¬
fied to write about productive
teams. DeMarco’s Structured
Analysis and System Specif N
cation is a classic in the field of
information management.
Peopleware is a collection
of essays about teams, produc¬
tivity, and quality. The au¬
thors’ style is casual, and they
sprinkle their essays with an¬
ecdotal insights. But don’t be
misled by the informal style
into expecting a hodgepodge
of software folklore and rule-
of-thumb management quips.
The information presented is
based on years of observing
development efforts, surveys,
and the authors1 annual Cod¬
ing War Games.
The book is divided into
five parts. In the first section,
'‘Managing the Human Re¬
source," DeMarco and Lister
advise against treating people
as faceless modular resources.
Instead, they recommend that
managers seek lo motivate
iheir teams with the goal of
producing good products in a
sane environment. The under¬
lying thesis of this section is
that most of the problems oc¬
curring in high-tech projects
are not technological but so¬
ciological ,
The largest single section of
the book is devoted to the
office environment. This sec¬
tion is an indictment of the
open-office concept that has
swept through corporate
America. It shows the fallacy
in the cost-benefit analysis
that says, uWe can put a hun¬
dred people on this floor, and
just look at all the money we
save/’ An open office, the au¬
thors maintain, guarantees
continuous interruption. No
studies support the open
office, while several (by IBM,
ITT, and others) show that it
has a deleterious effect on
knowledge workers.
The authors give a simple
formula for managing teams:
Get the best people (cut out the
continued
54 BYTE- FEBRUA RY 1 989 Circle 16 2 on Sender Service Card
While dRASE Promises Y)u The Moon,
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Circle 166 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 - BYTE 55
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BOOK REVIEWS
NOW, who's in charge ?
Now, with STAGEHAND you can create Advanced Screens
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are a manager coordinating a large project, a consultant
or programmer trying to speed-up development time,
STAGEHAND allows you to be in control.
WhOt IS 0 STAGEHAND
Without a STAGEMANACER7
The STAGEMANAGER library, with it's powerful func¬
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STAGEHAND, With the help of the STAGEMANAGER you can
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deadwood), and make them
happy. Turn them loose.
The last three parts of the
book are devoted to under¬
standing how to grow teams.
First, the authors explore how
not to do it— ways to avoid
“team icide Some of the mis¬
takes leading to teamicide are
fragmentation of people's
time (e.g,, one person work¬
ing on four projects), forced
quality reductions, phony
deadlines, and defensive man¬
agement, The authors recom¬
mend that managers make a
cult of quality and encourage
teams with a sense of eliteness
and teams that support indi¬
viduality* The management
should provide strategic but
not tactical direction.
Peopleware is a sociology
book that deserves a place on
any technical manager's
bookshelf. It's not shelf ware,
though— take it down and re¬
view it before your next team
meeting.— Charles Herring
Better Scientific and Tech*
nical Writing by Morris /.
Bolsky, Prentice Hall , Engle¬
wood Cliffs, NJ: 1988 1 156
pages , $ 14 p 95. If you write re¬
ports, documentation, or even
interoffice memos, Better Sci¬
entific and Technical Writing
can help. In a book that prac¬
tices what it preaches, Morris
L Bolsky (a technical writer
for AT&T Bell Laboratories)
presents guidelines, tips, and
techniques for conveying in¬
formation in the clearest, most
effective manner.
This slim, well -organized
volume touches on all aspects
of a writing project, from
planning to printing. The
heart of the book, however, is
the chapter entitled “ Design-
Principles,” which offers an
excellent set of guidelines for
good writing* Explanations
and examples support these
principles, which stress sim¬
plicity and readability in
everything from word choice
and sentence structure to over¬
all tone and organization. 'A
list on the back cover summa¬
rizes this and other material,
and it's almost worth the price
of the book just to have that
synopsis handy.
Bolsky gives considerable
attention to the presentation of
information, and he offers tips
on such reader aids as foot¬
notes, contents and i ndex, and
tables. The chapter on physical
design covers the actual print¬
ing of a document, from decid¬
ing on a typeface to choosing
the most readable ink color.
Brief sections on grammar
and punctuation provide a
quick reference for style ques¬
tions, and a reasonably com¬
prehensive index makes the
book's information easily ac¬
cessible.
You may not agree with
Bolsky on every point— not
everyone thinks a table of con¬
tents belongs on the cover, and
using “they” as a singular pro¬
noun makes a lot of people
wince— but Bolsky himself is
quick to point out that he offers
recommendations, not rules.
With that in mind, Better Sci¬
entific and Technical Writing
is a useful handbook for nov¬
ice writers and a good refer¬
ence for old hands*
— Margaret A, Richard
C Traps and Pitfalls by An¬
drew Koenig, Addison- Wes¬
ley, Reading, MA: 1989 p 147
pages t $16.25. The product of
over 20 years of programming
experience, including 10
years using the C language at
Bell Labs, C Traps and Pit-
falls presents the most perva¬
sive of classic goofs and gaffes
you're likely to encounter
while programming in C.
The book was originally
circulated as an internal paper
within Bell Labs. Unprece¬
dented enthusiasm there
prompted Koenig to turn the
paper into a book. All the
problems mentioned in the
book come from the author's
own programming and the ex¬
perience of other members of
Bell Labs' technical staff.
Like any good book dealing
with C, it starts with an intro¬
duction* Eight more chapters
cover lexical, semantic, and
syntactic pitfalls, as well as li¬
brary routines, the preproces¬
sor, portability concerns, and
continued
58 BYTE * FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 70 on Reader Service Card
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FEBRUARY J989 * BYTE 59
Circle 55 on Reader Service Card
BOOK REVIEWS
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problems that occur during the
link phase. The style is lean
and pithy, with section head¬
ings like “Memory location
zero” and '* = is not = = *”
Pitfalls are amply illustrated
with C code fragments. The
examples also examine the
anomalous program behavior
caused by a given program¬
ming error. Where appropri¬
ate, the book lists differences
that might occur while using
proposed ANSI C versus one
of the older commercial ver¬
sions of C. Each chapter con¬
cludes with a few useful exer¬
cises , the answers to wh ich are
at the end of the book. An ap¬
pendix gives the most com¬
plete discussion of the print f
command that Eve ever seen.
For the novice C program¬
mer, this book will provide a
relief from an almost certain
future of chaos. The profes¬
sional programmer will
chuckle upon encountering
certain familiar pitfalls but
will also gain a better insight
into these, The book is easy to
read, yet it contains a lasting
store of information for any C
programmer. —Jason Levitt
What Do You Care W'hal
Other People Think? by
Richard Feynman t W. W,
Norton and Co., New York:
1988 , 255 pages, $17.95. If
there is one scientist who de¬
serves to have his adventures
cataloged in a hagiography, it
is Richard Feynman: winner
of the Nobel prize in physics, a
distinguished member of the
National Academy of Sci¬
ences, onetime actor, artist,
and sometime drummer in a
Brazilian samba band.
This book is a continuation
of tales from Feynman's life,
fol lowing the best-selling suc¬
cess of Surely You Must Be Jok¬
ing . Mr. Feynman. The first
section of the book is filled
with personal stories and
memories told in a grand-
fatherly style. The second sec¬
tion focuses on the space shut¬
tle program and on the inves¬
tigation of the Challenger
explosion. Itisatreatforthose
who love Feynman's chutzpah
and a lesson for anyone in¬
volved in a large engineering
project. Feynman turned out
to be the only member of the
President’s investigative com¬
mittee not working for the Air
Force or NASA, He realized
this gave him the freedom to
ask difficult questions, and he
took advantage of that oppor¬
tunity.
Atthetime, Feynman found
that a bit of bureaucratic hard¬
ening of the arteries had set in
at NASA, The different engi¬
neering problems were gradu¬
ally coated over with sugar as
each manager briefed his
boss. As a result, upper man¬
agement steadfastly adhered
to a failure probability esti¬
mate of 1 in 100,000 launches,
while the working engineers
said it was I in 100.
Computer scientists will
find particular interest in the
chapters on the software that
runs the space shuttle. That
side of the NASA effort uses
very rigorous standards that
require adversarial teams to
try and find problems in each
other's code,
Feynman died last Febru¬
ary, and this will likely be the
last published collection of his
anecdotes. The book makes
excellent reading both for its
entertaining style and for
Feynman's keen insights.
—Peter Wayner ■
CONTRIBUTORS
David A. Mindell is a techni¬
cal consultant who lives in As¬
pen, Colorado. G« Michael
Vose is coeditor of OS Report:
News and Views on OS/2. He
lives in Peterborough, New
Hampshire. Charles Her¬
ring is a computer scientist at
the U.S. Army Construction
Engineering Research Lab¬
oratory in Champaign, Illi¬
nois, Margaret A. Richard
has a Certificate in Technical
Communications from the
University of Lowell. She is a
copy editor for BYTE. Jason
Levitt is a Unix aficionado
and freelance writer based in
Austin, Texas. Peter Wayner
is a doctoral student in com¬
puter science at Cornell Uni¬
versity.
60 BYTE * FEBRUARY 1 9S9 Circle 231 on Reader Service Card
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ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE
Advantage Disassembler
295
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MS Macro Assembler
150
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125
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SOURCER
100
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140
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Turbo Assembler/Debugger
150
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139
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149
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99
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MS BASIC/6.0
295
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MS QuickBASIC 4.5
99
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QuickPak Professional
149
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99
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130
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True BASIC
100
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Turbo Basic
100
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SoftCode
79
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C LANGUAGE
C-terp
298
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Lattice C
450
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Microsoft C
450
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QuickC
99
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w/ serial mouse
249
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CASYNCH MANAGER
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C TOOLS PLUS/5.0
129
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C Utility Library
199
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200
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Essential Communications
185
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Greenleaf Comm Library
229
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Greenleaf Functions
209
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Greenleaf SuperFunctions
265
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Greenleaf TurboFunctions
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PC-lint
139
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PCYACC
395
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TimeSlicer
295
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1000
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Turbo C TOOLS
129
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vLIB
99
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Essential Graphics
299
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595
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Graphic
395
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GSS Graphic Dev. Toolkit
595
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HALO '88
325
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HALO '88 for MS Devel.
595
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MetaWINDOW
195
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MetaWINDOW/PLUS
275
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TurboHALO
100
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119
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289
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C-Scape
299
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C Windows Toolkit
100
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Greenleaf Makeform
125
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HI-SCREEN XL
149
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JAM
750
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Micro Focus COBOL/2
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900
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120
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CLARION
695
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Clear +
200
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439
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dBASE IV
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90
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dBASE ON LINE
69
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dBASE Programmers Utilities
90
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dBASE Tools for C
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dBASE Tools for Pascal
90
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dBFast
100
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dBUG
195
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dQUERY
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FoxBASE +
395
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Flipper
195
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Genifer
395
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Integrated Dev. Library
149
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Quicksilver
599
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R:Base for DOS
725
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R& R
150
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w/Clipper/FoxBASE module
199
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Say What!
50
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CALL
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The Documentor
295
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195
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175
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Command Plus
90
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Command Tips
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Disk Optimizer
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60
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55
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189
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90
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MACE Utilities
99
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MKS Toolkit
199
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Norton Commander
89
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Norton Guides
100
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Norton Utilities
100
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Norton Utilities, Adv. Ver.
150
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Pathfinder
70
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PC/Tools Deluxe
80
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50
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80
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120
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50
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70
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129
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EDITORS
BRIEF
195
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Epsilon
KtDIT
195
150
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MKS VI
149
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99
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Norton Editor
75
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PC/EDT +
295
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Pi Editor
195
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Slick Editor
195
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SPF/PC
245
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VEDIT PLUS
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Vq
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FILE MANAGEMENT
Btrieve
245
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Xtrieve
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Report Option
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Grafmatic
135
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198
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100
69
Database Toolbox
100
69
Editor Toolbox
100
69
Tu rbo As sembl e r/Debu gge r
150
105
Turbo C 2.0
150
105
Turbo C 2-0 Professional
250
175
Turbo Pascal 5,0
150
105
Turbo Pascal 5 0 Professional
250
175
Database Toolbox
100
69
Editor Toolbox
100
69
Gameworks Toolbox
100
69
Graph ix Toolbox
100
69
Numerical Methods Toolbox
100
69
Tutor
70
45
Turbo Prolog
150
105
GREENLEAF SOFTWARE
INC.
C reen leaf Fu ncli o ns
209
149
Green leaf Comm Library
229
169
G reen leaf Tu rbo Fu nc Ho ns
109
79
Green leaf Data Windows, DOS
295
209
OS/2 Version
395
299
LIST OURS
Green leaf Bus. Malhlib
325
229
Green! eaf 5 u perF un c ti on s
265
1B9
G re en 1 eaf Ma keFo rrn
125
99
OS/2 Version
170
135
Green leaf Data Math Interface
75
69
LAHEY
F77L
477
429
F77L-1M/16
695
619
F77L-EM/32
695
005
A.I. DEVELOPER'S KiT
OPERATING SYSTEM
495
459
PERSONAL FORTRAN 77
95
09
MEDIA CYBERNETICS
Dr, HALO III
140
F01
HALO DPE
195
162
HALO '08
325
229
HALO B0 - MS Developers
595
399
TurboHALOforC
100
80
MICROSOFT
MS BASIC/6.0
295
199
MS C
450
299
MS COBOL V. 3.0
900
599
MS Excel
495
329
MS FORTRAN
450
299
MS Learning DOS
50
40
MS Mach 20
495
329
MS Macro Assembler
150
99
MS Mouse Serial or Bus
w/Paintbrush
& Mouse Menus
150
99
w/EasyCAD
175
T19
w/Paintbrush & Windows
200
139
MS OS/2 Prog. Toolkit
350
229
MS Pascal
300
199
MS QuickBASIC
99
69
MS QuickC
99
69
MS Sort
195
130
MS Wrndows/286
99
69
MS Windows/386
195
130
MS Windows Dev. Kit
500
319
MS Word
450
285
MS Works
149
99
MORTICE KERN SYSTEMS
MKS Awk
99
85
MKS Lex: Yacc
249
212
MKS Make
149
127
MKS RCS
109
161
MKS SQPS
495
420
MKS Toolkil
199
169
MKS Trilogy
119
101
MKS Vi
149
T29
NOVELL
Btrieve
245
185
Xtrieve
245
189
Repori Option
145
109
Btrieve/N
595
455
Xtrieve/N
595
459
Report OpHon/N
345
279
XQL
795
599
RAIMA
db— RETRIEVE
395
322
Single user w/source code
890
725
Muni-user
595
405
Multi-user w/source code
1390
f 1 33
db— FILE
395
322
Single user w/source code
890
725
Multi-user
595
405
Multi-user w/s o u rte code
1390
1133
WKS LIBRARY
195
179
Phone Orders
Hours 9 AM -7 PM EST, We accept
MasterCard, Visa, American Express.
Include $3.95 per item for shipping
and handling. All shipmen ts by UPS
ground. Rush service available.
Mail Orders
POs by mail or fax are welcome.
Please include phone number.
J n te mat ion a I Sen/ic e
Call or fax for information.
Dealers and Corporate Accounts
Call for in form alien.
Unbeatable Prices
We'll match nationally advertised
prices.
Return Policy
30- day no-hassle return policy. Some
manufacturer's products cannot be
returned once disk seals are broken.
turboMAGIC 2.0
Widely acclaimed code generator for Turbo
Pascal with the powerfufform painter and
interactive menu editor, you can create a
state-of-the-art user interface in minutes.
Fast pop-up windows with scrolling, bullet¬
proof input, context-sensitive and indexed
help windows, 26 modifiable field types,
mouse interface, directory search windows,
end-user color
installation, and sophisticated
software
itst: $199
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db-FILE 2.22 and db-RETRIEVE
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the familiar relational view, through SQL, of a
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CALL FOR PRICES!
A^l),4-fvft. List: $495 Ours: CALL
TimeSlicer
TimeSlicer is the most popular linkable library of C functions for creating
multitasking and real-time programs at the application level rather than
interfacing with the operating system,
TimeSlicer will allow an unlimited number of tasks to be running
concurrently. You car create, suspend or terminate tasks at run-time.
Preemptive and non-preemptive modes are supported, as well as waking-
up of tasks to optimize special event processing. TimeSlicer C functions
can be installed to replace or complement any interrupt service routine.
TimeSlicer is the better choice for creating multitasking programs, giving
you greater control and more efficient implementation of your multitasking
application than its operating system - m - ^ m
counterparts. f KEB/IAT ®
List; $295 Ours: $279 fell kVV/11
NeWS/2
NeWS/2 is the new PostScript based, network/extensible window system for
OS/2, As the foundation for OPEN LOOK, NeWS/2 is based on the client-
window server model, and is accessible thru named pipes from any
machine on a OS/2 LAN-Manager
network, NeWS/2 utilizes the powerful
PostScript programming language on the
screen to provide unprecedented
WYSIWYG as well as run-time extensibility
of the window server.
NeWS/2 is fully compatible with Sun
Microsystems' NeWS version 1,1, making
NeWS the only graphics window tech¬
nology available on Unix workstations,
OS/2 and the Macintosh,
in NY: 914-322-4548
Customer Service: 914-332-0869
international Orders: 914-332-4548
Telex: 510-601 7602
Fax: 914-332-4021
Call or Write for
Latest Free Catalog!
IT'S TIME TO DO SOME
SERIOUS 386 BUGBUSTING!
PROBE’S
bar and pull¬
down menus set a
standard for
debugger
interfaces.
PROBE has
source-level
debugging to let
you “C” your
program.
POP registers up
and down with a
single key.
This is an
out-of-range
mem ory-overwrite
hug , Since if is
interrupt related,
it only appears in
real time.
Welcome to your nightmare. Your company has bet
the farm on your product. Your demonstration
wowed the operating committee, and beta ship¬
ments were out on time. Then wham!
All your beta customers seemed to call on the same day.
“Your software is doing some really bizarre things” they say.
Your credibility is at stake. Your profits are at stake. Your
sanity is at stake.
THIS BUG’S FOR YOU
You rack your brain, trying to figure something out. Is it a
random memory overwrite? Or worse, an overwrite to a stack-
based local variable? Is it sequence dependent? Or worse,
randomly caused by interrupts? Overwritten code? Undocu¬
mented “features" in the software you're linking to? And to
top it off, your program is too big. The software debugger,
your program and it’s symbol table can’t fit into memory at
the same time. Opening a bicycle shop suddenly isn’t such a
bad idea,
THIS DEBUGGER’S FOR YOU
Announcing the 386 PROBE™ Bugbuster, * from A Iron, Nine
of the top-ten software developers sleep better at night
because of A iron hardware-assisted debuggers. Because they
can set real-time breakpoints which instantly detect memory
reads and writes.
Now, with the 386 PROBE, you have the capability to set a
qualified breakpoint, so the breakpoint triggers only if the
events are coming from the wrong procedures. So you don’t
have to be halted by breakpoints from legitimate areas. You
can even detect obscure, sequence-dependent problems by
slopping a breakpoint only after a specific chain of events has
occurred in a specific order.
Then, so you can look at the cause of the problem, the 386
PROBE automatically stores the last 2K cycles of program
execution. Although other debuggers may try to do the same
thing, Atron is the only company in the world to dequeue the
pipelined trace data so you can easily understand it.
Finally, 386 PROBED megabyte of hidden, write-protected
memory stores your symbol table and debugger. So your bug
can’t roach the debugger. And so you have room enough to
debug a really big program.
NIGHfS SLEEP
PUT YOU IN THE TOP TEN?
Look at it this way. Nine of the lop-ten software products in
any given category were created by Atron customers. Maybe
their edge is — a good night’s sleep.
Call and get your free, 56-page bugbusting bible today.
And if you’re in the middle
of a n ightmare right now,
give us a purchase order
number. Well FEDEX
you a sweet dream.
BUGBUSTERS
A division of Northwest Instrument Systems, Inc,
Saratoga Office Center • 1 2950 Saratoga Avenue
Saratoga, CA 95070 • Call 408/253-5933 today.
•Vernons to r COMPAQ, 'PS/2-£Qs jnJ compcijiblcs, Copyright 1 1987 hy Airun. 386 PROHB is a trademark of Alron. Cail 44-2-855-888 in the UK and 49.8.985-&G2Q in West Germany TRBA
Circle 24 on Reader Service Card
Whats New
Where Other
Computers Would
Just Slide Off
The Crayon 386 20/20 SP
is a full-featured com¬
puter for the rugged indus¬
trial environment where only
rack-mounted machines sur¬
vive. Yet it’s portable
enough— 17 by 20 by 8
inches and 32 pounds— to get
you between jobs.
The zero-wait-state micro¬
processor and Award BIOS get
you started with a megabyte
of system RAM that's expand¬
able to 16 megabytes (all of
which is addressable through
the 32-bit data path). Your
graphics applications can be
stored on 514- and 314-inch
disks, and there's a SCSI
adapter for up to seven pe¬
ripherals. You can add up to
six half-height drives for ad¬
ditional storage capacity.
Two temperature-con¬
trolled fans are mounted on the
back panel. There are also
eight full-length expansion
slots. MS-DOS 4.0 is in¬
cluded, as is a Honeywell 100-
key keyboard.
Price: $7495.
Contact: Video Graphic Sys¬
tems, 4163 St. Clair Ave>,
Studio City, CA 91604, (818)
509-5738.
Inquiry 1142.
Transputer Box for
AppleTalk Networks
Supercomputer perfor¬
mance on a Macintosh
network? That's what a small
Hew York company claims
with its parallel-processing
box called Chorus,
The box is a tower-size
system that can hold 4 to 16
parallel processors with 1
megabyte of memory for each
SYSTEMS
processor. In addition.
Chorus has provisions for net¬
work connectors that allow it
to be accessed by a number of
Macintoshes.
In the present configura¬
tion, Chorus uses four T-800
transputers. The number of
processors can be expanded to
16, 4 at a time. Its manufac¬
turer, Human Devices, claims
that each transputer is about
five times as powerful as a
68020/68881 processor com¬
bination. Future versions may
use other processors.
Several Macs can share
Chorus as a computational
server. Programmers can ac¬
cess the processors by using a
parallel-processing operating
system from Yale University
called Linda (see the article
“Getting the Job Done5' by Da¬
vid Gelernter in the Novem¬
ber 1988 BYTE). Linda state¬
ments can intermix with C
code in the Mac’s MPW
environment.
Human Devices claims
programmers will be able to
have Mac applications farm
out computationally intensive
tasks to Chorus. The com¬
pany will also provide a
Chorus-emulator software
package that will allow pro¬
grammers to write and test
Chorus applications without
actually having one on a
network.
Chorus includes an Apple-
Talk connector for connection
to a Mac network and has
provisions for Ethernet, The
company says that in the fu¬
ture it may have a version of
Chorus for the IBM PC.
Price: $25,000.
Contact: Human Devices,
Inc.t 322 West 71st St., New
York, NY 10023, (212) 580-
0257.
Inquiry 1140.
SEND US YOUR NEW PRODUCT RELEASE
We *d like to consider your product for publication . Send us full
information, including its price , ship date, and an address and
telephone number where readers can get f urther information . Send
to New Products Editor, BYTE, One Phoenix Mill Lane , Peter¬
borough , NH 03458, Information contained in these items is based
on manufacturers * written statements and/or telephone interviews
with BYTE reporters. BYTE has not formally reviewed each product
mentioned , These items, along with additional new product
announcements, are posted regularly on BIX in the microbytes. sw
and microbytes, hw conferences.
Modular CPU
Machine in Small
Tower
The VIP SX386 from Ad-
vanced Logic Research
(ALR) is a small- footprint
16-MHz desktop computer
with a “modular" plug-in
CPU for later upgrade to a 20-
MHz Intel 80386,
It's also packaged in a
short-tower configuration,
measuring 7 inches high, 4xh
inches wide, and 15 inches
deep and weighing only 17
pounds. But that miniature size
doesn't stop it from packing
in lots of features: one 8-bit
and four 16-bit slots, a 40-
megabyte hard disk drive, and
a l . 44-megabyte 3 Vi -i nch
f loppy disk drive that's PS/2-
compatible.
As with most other ALR
machines, the company claims
faster computing power than
similarly configured Compaq
computers. With a propri¬
etary FlexCache architecture
as a “cache management
scheme,” ALR claims 30 per¬
cent better performance over
Compaq's 8G386SX machines.
Hardware on the VIP SX386
includes an 82385 cache con¬
troller and 5 12K bytes of
RAM {expandable to 8
megabytes).
A 40-megabyte internal
hard disk drive in a 3 Vz-inch
form factor is optional.
Price: $2395; with 40-mega¬
byte internal hard disk drive,
$3695.
Contact: Advanced Logic
Research, Inc., 9401 Jeron¬
imo , Irvine, CA 927 1 8 ,
(800) 444-4257; in California,
(714) 581-6770.
Inquiry 114L
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 65
WHAT’S NEW
PERIPHERALS
Say Goodbye
to Thermal Paper
The Jet Fax works with
your Laser Jet-type printer
for laser-printer clarity.
It connects directly to your
phone line through the stan¬
dard copper cable, and you
plug it into the printer through
the printer's parallel port. It
operates at the standard Group
3 rates of up to 9600 bits per
second and can receive up to
30 pages with its one-half
megabyte of internal memory.
If the printer is active
when your JetFax begins to re¬
ceive a facsimile, your JetFax
will store the incoming mes¬
sage and will print it after the
initial print job has concluded.
With a full megabyte of
RAM, you can store up to 60
fax pages, as well as use the
higher- resolution mode of
many laser printers. The
memory also serves as a
printer-sharing device for
PCs, or a file server on a local -
area network*
You can also add an econo¬
my fax machine to send faxes
and to handle any overload.
Price: $1 195; with 1 mega¬
byte of R AM, $1395.
Contact: Hybrid Fax, Inc.,
1733 Woodside Rd*, Suite 335,
Redwood Citv, CA 94061,
(415) 369-0600.
Inquiry 1148.
Wallet-Size
Hard Disk Drive
The Hardpac Micro 20 is
an 8-ounce, 20-megabyte
hard disk drive featuring an
access time of 28 milliseconds
and a shock rating of
100 g’s*
Features include a hard
disk drive access mechanism
that's 30 percent the size of
standard 3 'A -inch disk drives,
ramped heads, automatic
parking, and a L 5- watt power
requirement.
You need a half-slot XT or
AT host adapter for desktops,
or any Amstrad laptop or To¬
shiba Model U0Q.
Price: $1195; host adapters
are all $95.
Contact: Aristotle Indus¬
tries, Inc., 3226 Beta Ave.,
Burnaby, BC, Canada V5G
4K4, (604) 294-1113*
Inquiry 1151.
Printer Redefines
Portability
The Toshiba Express-
Writer 301 portable
printer features a 24-pin
print head in a 4-pound
package.
Maximum speed is only 60
characters per second. Graph¬
ics resolution is 180 by 180
dots per inch, and the maxi¬
mum paper width is 8 inch¬
es* Normal speed is 42 cps,
and it prints best on thermal
transfer paper.
Memory is 2K bytes of
RAM, and it includes a nickel-
cadmium battery.
Price: $489.
Contact: Toshiba America,
Inc., Information Systems Di¬
vision, 9740 Irvine Blvd.,
Irvine, CA 92718, (800) 457-
7777; in California, (714)
583-3000.
Inquiry 1 149.
And, for Your
Portable Mac
The WritcMove is a 192-
dp i ink-jet printer that
will fit inside your Macin¬
tosh's carrying case. Write-
Move weighs 3 pounds and
measures 2 by 7 by 1 1 inches.
QuickDraw imaging tech¬
nology hardware is coupled
with multiple software fea¬
tures, including six fonts, your
choice of printer drivers, a
spooler, an installer, and a
print-manager application.
You can scale the fonts to
any size or rotate, condense,
expand, or manipulate them
I i ke Post Sc ri pt-compat ible
fonts. You can also reduce
documents to 25 percent and
enlarge them to 400 percent
in 1 percent increments, while
retaining 192 dpi.
The driver allows for sev¬
eral printing options. For ex¬
ample, Preview lets you view
the document on-screen before
printing; Draft prints less
than 192 dpi for quicker out¬
put; High-Quality ensures
192 dpi; and Print Later per¬
mits batching of print jobs
for printing later with the print
manager application.
Price: $699*
Contact: GCC Technol¬
ogies, 580 Winter St*,
Waltham, M A 02154, (617)
890-0880*
Inquiry 1150.
Hard Disk Drives
For LAN Servers
A series of hard disk
drives intended for use in
PC LAN server applications
has been designed by Plus
Development*
The Impulse series in¬
cludes 40- and 80- megabyte
drives and a proprietary 16-
bit bus interface card. You can
install up to four of the half¬
height 3 IA-inch drives inside a
PC and attach up to 14 in ex¬
ternal chassis that hold two
drives each, for a total of up
to 16 drives, or 1,3 gigabytes,
connected to a single card.
You can install two cards
in a PC backplane; under DOS
and OS/2, you can access up
to 24 drives. Under Novell's
NetWare, 32 drives, or 2.6
gigabytes of storage, can exist
on the server, the company
says.
Plus offers the Impulse
models as an alternative to
150- to 350- megabyte server
drives. The advantage is that
with Impulse, you can ex¬
pand server capacity incremen¬
tally, in chunks of 40 or 80
megabytes* Plus says the sys¬
tem, with multiple disk units,
can achieve a degree of parallel
data access. Although all
data eventually has to pass se¬
quentially through the inter¬
face card and onto the bus, the
drive heads can rotate and
seek simultaneously.
Plus has enhanced this dis¬
tributed architecture with a
proprietary disk controller
that the company says achieves
data throughput at roughly
four times the speed of a SCSI
port. The cluster-disk inter¬
face transfers data 5 32 bytes at
a time.
Price: $995 to $1379.
Contact: Plus Development
Corp., 1778 McCarthy Blvd.,
Milpitas, CA 95035, (408)
434-6900.
Inquiry 1152.
continued
66 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
vfoeM0U
between
FebTuary
^ tvn,J
^ - /
'< v/
*73 ^
If you perform
calculations, the answer
is obvious.
MathCAD 2.0.
It’s everything
you appreciate about
working on a scratch-
pad-simple, free-form
math -and more. More
speed. More accuracy
More flexibility
Just define your
variables and enter your
formulas anywhere on the screen. MathCAD
formats your equations as they're typed.
Instantly calculates the results. And displays
them exactly as you’re used to seeing them-
in real math notation, as numbers, tables
or graphs,
MathCAD is more than an equation
solver. Like a scratchpad, it allows you to add
^ text anywhere to
support your work,
and see and record
every step. You can
try an unlimited
number of what-ifs.
And print your
entire calculation as
an integrated docu¬
ment that anyone
can understand.
Plus, MathCAD
s loaded with powerful
built-in features. In addition to the usual trig¬
onometric and exponential functions, it
includes built-in statistical functions, cubic
splines, Fourier transforms, and more. It also
handles complex numbers and unit conver¬
sions in a completely transparent way.
Yet, MathCAD is so easy to learn, you’ll
be using its full power an hour after you begin.
What more could you ask for? How about
three new applications packs to increase your
productivity?
The Advanced Math Applications
Pack includes 16 applications like eigenvalues
and eigenvectors of a symmetric matrix, solu¬
tions of differential equations, and polynomial
least-squares fit.
Two Statistics Applications Packs
let you perform 33 standard statistical routines
such as multiple linear regression, combinations
and permutations, finding the median, simulating
a queue, frequency distributions, and much more,
MathCAD lets you perform calculations in
a way that’s faster, more natural, and less error-
prone than the way you're doing them now-
whether you use a calculator, a spreadsheet, or
programs you write yourself. So come on over
to MathCAD and join 45,000 enthusiastic users.
See your dealer or call 1-800-MATHCAD
Ext 2776 (In MA; 617-577-1017),
© 1363 Inc
Requires IBM PC® or compatible, 512KB RAM, graphics card.
IJ3M PC* JiUefriiiitiiul Business Machines CorporaLkm.
MathCAD* NWhSofl. Inc
MathCAD
MathSoft, lac., On* Kendall Sq., Cambridge, MA 02139
Circle 139 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 67
WHAT’S NEW
ADD-INS
Data Acquisition
Reaches the Mac SE
The Lab-SE data acquisi¬
tion board from National
Instruments features A/D
conversion with software-pro¬
grammable gain, on-board
timing, flexible channel scan¬
ning, and full interrupt
capability.
It contains an 8-bit A/D
converter with eight analog in¬
puts and a 125-kHz sampling
rate, a 13-bit integrating A/D
converter (12 bits and a sign-
bit), two 8 -bit D/A converters
with voltage outputs, 24 lines
of TTL-compatible digital I/O,
and three 16-bit on-board
coumer/timer channels.
Each Lab-SE comes
equipped with a 5 Vi-inch rib¬
bon cable that connects the
card from inside the SE to a
50-pin male ribbon connector
that mounts on the back of the
SE, The Lab-SE also needs
the software driver with rou¬
tines that are callable from,
any language that supports sys¬
tem Toolbox device manager
calls. The software driver in¬
cludes language interfaces1
for MPW C, Lightspeed C,
and Microsoft BASIC.
For the complete graphical
programming environment for
developing scientific and en¬
gineering applications, you
need LabView, a graphical
programming language, the
Lab-SE, and the Lab-SE
driver. With them, you can de¬
velop application programs to
control the SE board.
Pricer Data acquisition
board, $595; software driver,
$95;, LabView, $1995 (with
significant academic discounts
available).
Contact: National Instru¬
ments Corp,, 12109 Technol¬
ogy BIvd>, Austin, TX
78727, (800) 531-4742; in
Texas, (800) 433-3488.
Enquiry 1154,
VGA Board
Generates NTSC-
Compatible Signals
W ith the Recordable
VGA graphics board,
IBM PC owners can afford to
attain some of the video capa¬
bilities of the Commodore
Amiga and Atari ST.
The US Video Recordable
VGA board for the IBM PC,
XT, AT, and compatibles
will output NTSC -standard
composite video in real time
to TV monitors and VCRs, To
do this, it performs two
functions: It acts as a VGA in¬
terface to high- resolution
color monitors (and offers per¬
formance 400 percent to 600
percent faster than basic VGA,
the company claims), and it
converts computer graphics to
video that can be recorded
and played back on any stan¬
dard videotape recorder.
Each board supports sev¬
eral high- resolution modes, in¬
cluding 640 by 480 pixels
with 256 colors, 800 by 600
pixels with 16 colors, 1024
by 768 pixels with 16 colors,
and 1 32-column text modes
in 25, 30, 43, and 60 rows.
Drivers for AutoCAD,
PCAD, Ventura Publisher,
Lotus 1-2-3, and Word¬
Perfect are included.
While the Recordable
VGA promises 100 percent
NTSC compatibility, US
Video readily admits that its
system cannot remove
flicker. But the company says
that by using VGA's large
palette of colors to shade lines,
the flicker from Recordable
VGA is “no worse than what
you see on TV."
One enhancement module
is available, with two others in
the works, the company says.
The overlay module, which in¬
cludes genlock functions,
combines a computer-gener¬
ated image with an external
video source in a video-record¬
able format.
Price: $785; overlay module,
$385,
Contact: US Video, One
Stamford Landing, 62 South-
field Ave., Stamford, CT
06902, (203) 964-9000.
Inquiry 1157.
continued
Adding MIPS with Chips
When you add the 260
Personal Mainframe
or the 270PM to your IBM
XT, AT, PS/2 Model 30, or
Model 35, you also add as
much as 10 million instruc¬
tions per second (MIPS) of
processing power. And you
provide a Unix System V op¬
erating system to work alone
or concurrently with your
system’s native DOS.
Both the 260PM and the
270PM are based on the
32532 processor from Na¬
tional Semiconductor. The
260PM operates at 25 MHz
and offers 8.5-MIPS perfor¬
mance, claims manufac¬
turer Opus Systems. Simi¬
larly, the company claims
that the 270PM operates at
30 MHz and offers 10-MIPS
performance.
That means, Opus says,
when a 270PM is added to a
25-MHz cached 80386-
based system that operates at
5 MIPS , the resulting system
totals 15 MIPS and is a dual¬
processing system. The
260PM and 270PM domi¬
nate much of the I/O pro¬
cessing, but not all.
Both the products offer a
version of the MIT X Win¬
dow System and the 32381
floating-point processor to
support single- and double-
precision IEEE-format
arithmetic calculations. Op¬
tionally available is software
that supports an Ethernet
controller running TCP/IP;
similar TCP/IP software
bundled with Sun's Network
File System; and application
software written in C, FOR¬
TRAN 77, COBOL, Com¬
mon Lisp, BASIC, and
others.
Price: 260PM with 4 mega-
bytes of RAM, $6995;
270PM with 4 megabytes of
RAM, $7995.
Contact: Opus Systems,
20863 Stevens Creek Blvd . ,
Building 400, Cupertino,
CA 95014, (408) 446-21 10.
Inquiry U53.
68 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
Through Basic training?
Graduate to Turbo Pascal.
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You are not alone
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WHAT’S NEW
HARDWARE • CONNECTIVITY
Bus Mastering
Debut on Token Ring
The first available add-in
board that is configured
as a bus master controller
comes from Mexican technol¬
ogy and American market¬
ing, according to Lantana
Technology. Lantana is the
marketing- driven company
that recently opened shop in
the U.S. to import and sell
technology that was original¬
ly developed in Mexico by
Computadoras Micron S.A.
deC.V.
The Cypress/2 board is a
16-bit token-ring add-in board
for IBM PC -compatible 4-
megabit -per-second token- r i ng
networks. The bus-mastering
feature, the most advanced
feature of the PS/2 Micro
Channel bus, allows the main
system processor to give up
control of the system bus tem¬
porarily so that a processor
on an expansion card can use it
for high-speed data transfers.
In addition to the bus- mas¬
tering feature, the Lantana
boards include 128K bytes of
RAM that expands the buffer
and allows the IEEE 802,2
logical link control software to
be loaded, a32K-byte
EPROM module that stores the
LLC software in ROM, and a
remote-program -load EPROM
module for diskless
workstations.
Price: $795,
Contact: Lantana Technol¬
ogy, Inc,, 4393 View ridge
Ave., Suite A, San Diego,
CA 92123, (619) 565-6400,
Inquiry 1164,
IBM Cranks Up
Token Ring
to 16 Megabits
he token-passing tech¬
nology that IBM popular¬
ized in its 4- megabit -per-sec-
ond local-area network is now
available in IEEE 802.3^
compliant hardware support¬
ing 16-M bps data rates. This
pits IBM in the networking
arena against the companies
offering products that con¬
form to the 10-Mbps IEEE-
specified Ethernet networks.
At the heart of the new
add-in boards is an IBM-de¬
signed CMOS A/D interface
chip. The Micro Channel
board can be switched be¬
tween 4 and 16 Mbps to up¬
grade existing token rings.
The 16-Mbps AT board cannot
be switched. Neither board
includes bus-mastering
capabilities.
All the new adapter cards
provide 64K bytes of RAM in¬
stead of the 8K-byte or 16K-
byte RAM on previous boards.
When used in the file servers
of 4-Mbps LANs, IBM says,
the boards increase the num¬
ber of workstations that can
share server resources.
Price: $895,
Contact: Consult your local
IBM branch office or call
(800) 426-2468.
Inquiry 1165.
Modem Links
Ethernets Using
Broadband
The 10Broad36 Lan-
Express modem from
Lanex lets you run two or
eight Ethernet local-area net¬
works (LANs) on the same
coaxial cable.
The IEEE 802 3 broad¬
band standard means multiple
LANs on one cable (with dif¬
ferent frequencies). Baseband
Ethernet is more widespread,
yet it allows only one LAN
(one frequency) per coaxial
cable.
The modem performs the
same function over a broad¬
band LAN that Ethernet
transceivers do for a baseband
LAN, without affecting the
baseband-controller hardware
or software. In other words,
the 10Broad36 replaces base¬
band Ethernet transceivers,
the most popular of the Ether¬
net transceivers.
Both the two-port and the
eight-port LanExpress models
connect Transmission Con¬
trol Protocol /Internet Protocol
nodes over a 10-megabit-per-
second Ethernet broadband
backbone. They also connect
such multi -protocol devices as
DECnet, NetWare, XNS,
TCP/IP, and Open Systems In¬
terconnection over the same
coaxial cable.
Price: Two -port, $2695;
eight-port, $2895 .
Contact: Lanex Corp.,
10727 Tucker St., BeltsviUe,
MD 20705, (800) 638-5969;
in Maryland, (301) 595-4700.
Inquiry 1162,
continued
Hayes Integrates PAD on the Modem
By incorporating a pack¬
et assembly /disassem¬
bly (PAD) function on a
ROM chip in its X.25 mo¬
dem, Hayes Microcomputer
Products will provide PC
users with multisession,
multipoint communications
through X.25 telecommuni¬
cations. (PAD units enable
equipment not designed for
packet switching to access a
packet- switched network.)
You can also use X.25 to
establish a direct data con¬
nection at 2400 bits per sec¬
ond to any of the Integrated
Services Digital Networks.
With this modem, multises¬
sion, multipoint communica¬
tions will mean you can make
one standard telephone call to
a telephone network that of¬
fers CCITTs X.25 and turn
that connection into four data
connections to PCs and main¬
frames alike. Then you hot¬
key from one data connection
to another.
Value-added networks
like Telenet, Tymnet, MCI,
and Datapac (in Canada) al¬
ready offer X.25 packet-
switching services. Packet-
switched information is less
expensive than circuit-
switched information. This
is because it travels in pack¬
ets and therefore isn’t con¬
tinuous, as it must be on tra¬
ditional telephone networks.
Hayes says these modems
will probably be used for
managing terminals and
workstations indispersed lo¬
cations. They could be used
for multisession, multipoint
communications.
Price: $895, or $50 for a sin¬
gle-chip ROM upgrade
package for any of the com¬
pany's V- series products.
Contact: Hayes Microcom¬
puter Products, Inc,, P.O.
Box 105203, Atlanta, GA
30348, (404) 449-879 L
Inquiry 1163.
72 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
TO
^ BASE JV/
SQL Server
IggjESD
Dear Oracle...
Oracle PC Direct * 20 Davis
Drive * Belmont, California 94002 ^
1-800- ORACLE 1P art. 4925
Send me the following ORACLE products for
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K /fnnouncmg talk to SQL Server?
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NAME
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FEBRUARY 1989 * B Y T E 73
WHAT’S NEW
WORKSTATIONS
Sony’s No-Baloney
Workstation
If you've got room on your
desk for an IBM PC AT\
you've got more than enough
room for Sony's high-powered
68030 Unix workstations
with erasable optical disk
drives. The NWS- 1750 is
based on a single 68030. The
NWS- 1830 and -1850 are
based on two 68030s,
On one double-sided Sc¬
inch cartridge, you can store
594 megabytes of formatted
data. Rewriting is accom¬
plished with a semiconductor
laser and a biasing magnet to
change the magnetic orienta¬
tion of the cartridge's record¬
ing layer. The laser writes on
the cartridge by magnetizing
the cartridge's recording
layer, which causes changes in
the laser beam's plane of
polarization.
The NWS- 1750 comes
standard with 4 megabytes of
RAM (expandable to 32
megabytes). It also has a 286-
megabyte hard disk drive.
Graphics options include 14-
inch, 816- by 1024-pixel
monochrome and 16- and 19-
inch, 1280- by 1024-pixel
four- or eight-plane color
displays with a graphics
controller.
The NWS- 1830 and -1850
are rated at 5.3 million in¬
structions per second based
on dual 25-MHz 68030 micro¬
processors, a 25-MHz 68882
floating-point coprocessor,
and a 64-byte cache memory.
The second microprocessor on
the 1800 series handles only
I/O functions and can increase
total system performance by
30 percent in many I/O-inten¬
sive applications, Sony says,
making it particularly valuable
when it's used as a file server
or when tape operations are
used.
All the 1800 series work¬
stations are equipped with a
1.44 -megabyte 3 'A -inch flop¬
py disk drive, a 125-megabyte
14-inch cartridge tape unit,
16 megabytes of RAM (ex¬
pandable to 32 megabytes),
and 286 megabytes of hard disk
drive storage space.
All the 1700s and 1800s
use the News-OS version 3 op¬
erating system, which is
based on Unix 4.3BSD. They
also use the X Window Sys¬
tem version 1 1 graphics stan¬
dard from MIT,
Price: Sony's 1700 series,
$13,900 to $51,600; the 1800
series, $31 ,900 to $54,200;
NWP-539 erasable optical
drive, $4650; optical car¬
tridge, $250,
Contact; Sony Microsystems
Co., 1049 Elwell Court, Palo
Alto, CA 94303, (415)
965-4492.
Inquiry 1146.
This Time is Real
The Ohio Scientific 720 is
based on the Motorola
68020 processors and a
Unix-compatible operating sys¬
tem that is designed for real¬
time operating requirements.
Such real-time features as
zero- wait-state system calls and
Request and Event queues
guarantee specific response
times to external interrupts.
Through an additional
level of priorities, the 720
guarantees each user some
response time because the level
is nonshared.
Each 720 has 12 RS-232C
ports, so, through intelligent
terminal concentrators and
networking, the system can ac¬
commodate as many as 60
users. Additional 68020 CPUs
(with supporting static RAM
cache) can be added in a paral¬
lel arrangement with dy¬
namic load balancing, the
manufacturer claims.
The standard 720 includes
4 megabytes of RAM that's ex¬
pandable to 64 megabytes.
Hard disk capacities range
from 9 1 megabytes to 1 .2
gigabytes, totaling to 16
gigabytes.
Price: $6350.
Contact: Consolidated Com¬
puter Systems, Inc,, 2150-D
West Sixth Ave. , Broomfield,
CO 80020, (303) 460-0444.
Inquiry 1147.
continued
A Workstation
for the Laptop
The high-performance
Toshiba T5100 multi¬
user portable workstation in¬
cludes Intel's 80386 micro¬
processor and runs T/PIX,
Tosh iba ’ s version of AT&T ' s
Unix System V/386 with
4.2BSD extensions.
The workstation is target¬
ed at business applications
but is finding a niche with
many software developers
because, in its full-featured
configuration, it comes bun¬
dled with T/PIX. That
means there's no need to
load and configure from the
25 disks Toshiba will send
you to load T/PIX separate¬
ly, and you can ship demo
software in a compact pack¬
age without much difficulty.
In its base configuration,
the 16- MHz 80386 includes
2 megabytes of RAM, a 40-
megabyte 29-millisecond
hard disk drive, a 1.44-
megabyte 3 Vi -inch floppy
disk drive, and a 640- by
400-pixel EGA-compatible
gas-plasma display.
The keyboard has 82 keys,
including an integrated nu¬
meric keypad; there’s also a
port for a 101 -key keyboard
so you can add your own.
Other standards are an
EGA monitor controller, an
RS-232C port, a combina¬
tion parallel port and 514-
tnch floppy disk drive con¬
troller, and an internal
expansion slot. You also get
MS-DOS. The basic T5100
supports X Windows, net¬
working through Remote
File Sharing, and TCP/IP
through an optional Ethernet
interface.
Price: $7199; with 2 mega¬
bytes of RAM and T/PIX,
$8750.
Contact: Toshiba America,
Inc., Advanced Systems,
9740 Irvine Blvd.f Irvine,
CA 92718, (714) 583-3071.
Inquiry 1145,
74 BYTE * FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 96 on Reader Service Card
Get the Best VGA Color
and Resolution Possible:
SupeiVGA" 16-Bit
Graphics Adapters.
Finally, two VGA adapters that
work the way your brain does. They ’re
fast. They’re bright. And they’re quick
to adapt
First let’s talk fast. The SuperVGA"4
16 -Bit Graphics Adapters use AT- type
buses-giving you twice the bandwidth
of other VGA cards. Combine that with
our RAMBIOS memory cache feature
and you get up to 5 times faster
performance. And the adapt¬
ers are smart enough to au¬
tomatically switch between
S-bit PC/XT and 16-bit
AT operation.
For GAD and desk¬
top publishing, these
adapters turn ordinary
computers into full¬
blown graphics engines. Fully
loaded, they give you an unprece¬
dented 1024 x 768 resolution in 16
bright colors - both interlaced and
non-interlaced * Or 256 brilliant on¬
screen colors out of a palette of 256K,
in other resolutions - including 800 x
600 and 640 x 480 *
With two adapters to choose
from, now you don’t have to wrack
your brain over VGA decisions.
Because they work with virtually any
monitor-analog, digital, or MultiSync.
They’re fully compatible with IBM®
VGA, EGA
MCGA,
CGA,
MDA and Hercules standards. And
they include drivers for many popular
software packages. Best of all, you
can start with the economical Model
5300 today, and upgrade to the full
power of a Model 5400 later. You
simply add 256KB of DRAM.
So before you make up your
mind on graphics, brainstorm with
your local dealer on SuperVGA™ 1 6-Bit
Graphics Adapters. Gall (408) 432-9090
today. Or write Genoa Systems Corpor¬
ation, 75 East Trimble Road, San Jose,
CA 95131, FAX (408) 434-0997,
London 44-01-225-3247, Taiwan
886-02-776-3933.
* Requires 512KB VGA GRAM
Insist on
Genoan Value.
Genoa
If you've ever seen the
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When that happens, it’s time
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The Norton Disk Doctor is
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Norton Utilities?
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Our legendary Un Erase -and its
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76 BYTE ■ FEBRUARY 1989
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r>j'J
Circle 265 on Reader Service Cord (DEALERS: 266 J
FEBRUARY 1 989 'BYTE 77
WHAT’S NEW
SOFTWARE * PROGRAMMING
QuickBASIC Gives
Quick Help
Microsoft's latest incar-
nation of its venerable
QuickBASIC programming
language— version 4*5— fea-
turns a new hypertext-based
on-line help system. Dubbed
“Advisor,” it lets you in¬
stantly call up cross-referenced
information from the lan¬
guage's entire reference man¬
ual. If you're a newcomer to
programming. Advisor will
help you learn BASIC more
quickly; if you're an experi¬
enced hacker, it'll let you
quickly find more esoteric in¬
formation. The key to Advi¬
sor is a help engine. Taking up
just 5K bytes of RAM, it in¬
cludes a file manager, a text
decompressor, and utilities.
QuickBASICs Advisor lets
you put the cursor on any word
on the screen and get detailed
information* For instance, if
you're entering a line of
BASIC code and want to know
more about the IF statement,
you place the cursor on IF,
press a help key, and get the
full reference to the IF state¬
ment, Microsoft says it will
be integrating Advisor technol¬
ogy into upcoming releases
of its other programming
languages*
Besides the new help tech¬
nology, QuickBASIC 4,5 has
the same features as version
4.0* They include a smart syn¬
tax-checking editor and com¬
pilation speeds of up to
150,000 lines per minute*
There's also an improved
source- level debugger with
what Microsoft calls an “in¬
stant” watch capability.
QuickBASIC 4.5 runs on
the IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2s,
and compatibles with 384K
bytes of RAM, MS-DOS 2 A
or higher, and a graphics
adapter. It supports the Micro¬
soft Mouse and comes with
printed reference and tutorial
manuals.
Price; $99.
Contact: Microsoft Corp*,
16011 Northeast 36th Way,
P.O. Box 97017, Redmond,
WA 98073, (206) 882-8080.
Inquiry 1108.
Tools for the Turbo
Pascal Trade
Written in Pascal, the
AIS Programmer Tool-
Kits let you manipulate win¬
dows, enter and edit data, de¬
sign screens, and more in the
Turbo Pascal Integrated Envi¬
A Little Jewel Makes Logical Connections
One of the trickiest prob¬
lems for any program¬
mer is correctly coding
multibranch logic modules.
Writing the code for con¬
structs like nested IF* . *
THEN statements can be
both challenging and time-
consuming. But Sterling
Castle has a new program
called Logic Gem that takes
the headache out of the pro¬
cess, letting you concentrate
on the problem instead of
writing code for the solution.
You can think of Logic
Gem as doing for logic what
a spreadsheet does for num¬
bers, Structured very much
like a spreadsheet, it's an
electronic decision table that
the company claims elimi¬
nates the possibility of bugs*
Logic Gem is actually a
collection of three decision-
table tools; an editor, an in¬
terpreter, and a code genera¬
tor* The editor automatically
completes an incomplete
logic table for you, generat¬
ing a set of decision rules* It
also eliminates redundant or
contradictory rules. Then
the interpreter steps you
through the table to verify
the logic* Finally, the code
generator translates the
complete decision tables Into
program code.
Logic Gem produces code
in C, structured BASIC, in¬
terpretive BASIC, Pascal,
FORTRAN, dBASE, and
English*
The program runs on any
IBM PC or compatible and
needs 64GK bytes of RAM*
Price: $198.
Contact: Sterling Castle,
702 Washington St., Suite
174, Marina del Rey, CA
90292, (800) 722-7853; in
California, (800)323-6406.
Inquiry 1107.
ronment. The Tool Kits are
compatible with Turbo Pascal
versions 3.0 through 5.0 and
contain several modules, in¬
cluding the Editor ToolKit,
Screen Design Utilities, a
Window ToolKit, a Dynamic
Array ToolKit (for version
4*0), a Linked List ToolKit,
and a Printer ToolKit.
Complete Pascal source
code is included with the AIS
Programmer Tool Kits. To
run the development package,
you’ll need an IBM PC, XT,
AT, PS/2, or compatible run¬
ning any Turbo Pascal ver¬
sion 3*0 through 5.0*
Price: $44.95.
Contact: Aba ire Information
Services, Inc., 2302 Ginter
St., Richmond, VA 23228,
(804) 262-2966.
Inquiry 1109.
Presentation
Manager
Development Tool
If you're an application de¬
veloper using Presentation
Manager, Object/ 1 may be
the tool for you. Using object-
oriented programming tech¬
niques, it offers a forms paint¬
er, a database interface, and
CASE development tools.
The forms painter lets you
create list boxes, radio buttons,
and other graphical dements.
You can create user interfaces
such as pop-up menus, links
from list boxes to database
fields, and enforced integrity
on data input.
The development tool in¬
cludes source code along with
hundreds of example classes,
methods, and objects* It runs
on 80286- or 80386-based
systems with at least 4 mega¬
bytes of RAM.
Price; Approximately $900.
Contact: Micro Data Base
Systems, Inc., P.O* Box 248,
Lafayette, IN 47902, (800)
344-5832; in Indiana, (317)
463-2581.
Inquiry 1110.
continued
78 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
' X7
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MICRO-CAP III:
THIRD-GENERATION INTERACTIVE
CIRCUIT ANALYSIS. MORE POWER.
MORE SPEED. LESS WORK.
MICRO-CAP ffl,,M the third generation
of the top selling IBM® PC-based interac¬
tive CAE tool, adds even more accuracy,
speed, and simplicity to circuit design and
simulation.
The program’s window-based opera¬
tion and schematic editor make circuit
creation a breeze. And super-fast SPICE-
like routines mean quick AC, DC, Fourier
and transient analysis— right from
schematics. You can combine simulations
of digital and analog circuits via integrated
switch models and macros. And, using
stepped component values, rapidly gener¬
ate multiple plots to fine-tune your circuits.
We’ve added routines for noise, impe¬
dance and conductance— even Monte
Carlo routines for statistical analysis of
production yield. Plus algebraic formula
parsers for plotting almost any desired
function.
Modeling power leaps upward as
well, to Gummel-Poon BJT and Level 3
MOS— supported, of course, by a built-in
Parameter Estimation Program and
extended standard parts library.
There’s support for Hercules;® CGA,
MCGA, EGA and VGA displays. Output for
laser plotters and printers. And a lot more.
The cost? Just $1495. Evaluation ver¬
sions are only $150.
Naturally, you’ll want to call or write for
a free brochure and demo disk.
Schematic editor
Monte Carlo analysis
1021 S. Wolfe Road,
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408) 738-4387
MICRO - CAP III is a registered tnulenuirk of Spectrum Software.
Hercules is a registered tnuiemark of Hercules Computer Tecbnolog):
IBM is a registered trademark of Intenialiorud Business Machines, Inc.
Circle 218 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 •BYTE 79
WHAT’S NEW
SOFTWARE • SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINE
Low-Cost CAD
Foresight Resources has
spruced up its Drafix
CAD and renamed it Drafix
CAD Ultra.
One of the enhancements
is a CADapuIt utility, which
lets you take attribute infor¬
mation and convert it to a vari¬
ety of databases, spread¬
sheets, and high-level language
formats. Then you can bring
the information back into
Drafix CAD Ultra.
The program also lets you
use its Hewlett-Packard Graph¬
ics Language export com¬
mand to save plotting instruc¬
tions in formats compatible
with desktop publishing pro¬
grams such as Aldus Page¬
Maker and Ventura Publisher,
You can also import ASCII
text files from word processing
programs and use the text in
your CAD drawings.
Also included with the
program is a library of over
450 predrawn symbols. Sepa¬
rate libraries of architectural,
mechanical engineering, and
electrical engineering symbols
are available. Other enhance¬
ments include off-line plotting
and new plotter drivers that
let you use D- and E-size plot¬
ters, The user interface is en¬
hanced with the addition of
status displays of layer, line-
type, and pen identification.
You can also backtrack
through up to 100 drawing
commands. The new Drafix
CAD supports a wider variety
of graphics adapters.
Drafix CAD Ultra runs on
the IBM PC with 640K bytes
of RAM, DOS 2.0 or higher,
a graphics card, and a mouse.
Price: $395; Report writer,
$150; Professional Symbol Li¬
braries, $200 each.
Contact: Foresight Re¬
sources Corp., 10725 Ambas¬
sador Dr., Kansas City, MO
64153, (816) 891-1040.
Inquiry 1113.
Souped-Up
Statistical Analysis
SPSS has dropped copy
protection and added new
features to the statistical
analysis program SPSS/PC +
Version 3.0 now lets you use
500 variables instead of the
200 in previous versions.
Also added is an exploratory
data-analysis procedure that
produces univariate statistics
and a variety of plots.
Network support is also
enhanced. Previous versions
supported Novell LANs, and
the current version supports
token-ring and 3Com net¬
works as well.
SPSS/PC + 3.0 runs on the
IBM PC, XT, AT, and compat¬
ibles with 512K bytes of
RAM and DOS 2.0 or higher.
Price: $795.
Contact: SPSS, Inc., 444
North Michigan Avc.,
Chicago, IL 60611, (312)
329-3300.
Inquiry 1114.
Tango Totally Revamped
The Tango family of
electronic-design soft¬
ware has been completely re¬
written, according to Accel
Technologies. Tango-PCB
Series II enhancements in¬
clude user-definable tracks,
pads, vias, and text strings.
There are more layers, im¬
proved grid options, and a
wider range of video and
printer/plotter support.
The previous version al¬
lowed only four fixed track
sizes, 22 pad types, and eight
text-string sizes. Now you
can have any number of track
widths, seven pad shapes,
and text strings of from 4 to
1020 millimeters. Also in¬
creased is the number of
layers— up to 19 from the
previous 9. The maximum
workspace is increased from
32 by 19 inches to 32 by 32
inches.
Series II now supports
VGA, Hercules, and other
graphics cards, in addition to
CGA and EGA, which were
supported in the previous
version.
All functions for editing,
plotting, and photoplotting
are bundled into one pro¬
gram. New features include
user-definable arcs on any
layer. Component pattern li¬
braries are also larger.
The new user interface,
called the Accel Productivi¬
ty Interface (API), features
pop-up menus and dialog
boxes. It also has a Speed
E R I N G
Go with the
(Hydraulic) Flow
Hydronet is a fluid-analy¬
sis program that is used
in applications such as water
supply and treatment, petro¬
leum transport, industrial
and process engineering,
wastewater conveyance, and
fire-protection systems. The
program computes the
steady-state flows and pres¬
sures throughout systems.
The program is upgraded
with a Lotus 1 -2-3-type inter¬
face, display and printer
graphics that show hydraulic
grade lines, fitting and valve
usage, critical pressure and
pump calculations, and a
larger system -design capacity.
The program runs on the
IBM PC, XT, AT, or compat¬
ibles with 512K bytes of
RAM.
Price: $495.
Contact: Engineering Soft¬
ware, P.G- Box 1450, Nevada
City, CA 95959, (916)
288-3470.
Inquiry 1117.
continued
Palette, which you can use
for the commands you need
most.
An auto-router is also
added to the Tango-PCB
Series II. The four- layer, 25-
mil-grid, multipass auto-
router offers pop-up menus
and dialog boxes for setting
up design parameters.
To run the Tango-PCB
Series II products, you need
an IBM PC or compatible
with a CGA, VGA, EGA, or
Hercules graphics card.
Price: PCB alone, $595;
PCB with Route, $995.
Contact: Accel Technol¬
ogies, Inc., 7358 Trade St.,
San Diego, CA 92 12 1,(619)
695-2000.
Inquiry 1115,
80 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
This new catalog is the best place to shop for □ Please have a Dell representative call me.
high-performance 386™ systems, 286 systems,
and more. At the lowest possible prices. Just
send this card, and we’ll send you a copy.
Or call (800) 426-5150. In Canada, call
(800) 387-5752.
Name: _
Title: _
Company: _
Address : _
City: _ State: _ Zip: _
1. Which products are
you most interested in?
A □ 286-based systems
B □ 386-based systems
□ Other _
2. How many PCs do you
(your company) plan
to purchase in the next
twelve months?
A □ 1-10
B □ 11-20
C □ Over 21
3. Is your requirement:
A □ Immediate
B □ 1-3 months
C □ Over 3 months
D □ Info only
4. Are you a (select one):
A □ End User
B □ Consultant
C □ Reseller
D □ Corporate Purchaser
E □ DP/MIS
5. How many PCs do you
have installed now?
A □ 1-10
B □ 11-20
C □ Over 21
DELL
COMPUTER
CORPORATION
Phone:
€> 1988 DELL COMPUTER CORPORATION. 386 is a trademark oflntel Corporation.
NO POSTAGE
NECESSARY
IF MAILED
IN THE
UNITED STATES
BUSINESS REPLY MAIL
FIRST CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO. 6745 AUSTIN, TEXAS
POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE
Dell Computer Corporation
Dept, me
9505 Arboretum Boulevard
Austin, Texas 78759-9969
IIiiiIIiiIiIihIiIiIiIiIiiIiIiiIiIiiiIIiiIiIiiiiiIII
Why you should buy
COMPUTERS BY THE BOOK.
As you can see from our 4-page ad at the
front of this magazine, buying direct from
Dell is the best possible way to buy computers.
And this book is the best way to order. The Dell
Computer Catalog* In 28 pages, it gives you full
information on our high-performance
386™ systems, 286 systems, laser printers,
and much more.
Besides our own equipment, youll also find a
full line of software, peripherals, accessories, en¬
hancement products, and networking solutions.
All at lower-than-retail prices with higher-than-
retail service and support. Just call us at (800)
426-5150. In Canada, call (800) 387-5752.
Or send the attached reply card* And well
send a catalog immediately*
DELL
COMPUTER
CORPORATION
01938 DELL COMPUTER CORPORATION. 386 is a trademark ofTrtiel Corporation.
AD CODE NO.
11EE9 |
Circle 74 m Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 * B Y T E 81
MflREHOUSEBMTk
PRODUCTS
SAVE
60%
ON OUR
EVERYDAY
PRICES
SINCE 1979, servicing our PC buyers with low pricing ,
technical experience - and reliable service .
S
F T
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ACCOUNTING
DacEasyAccLtorSQ . $55
Dae Easy Light . . . . , 39
Dollars & Sense . 94
Managing You* Money 50 . Call
One Write Plus . . 143
Peachtree Business Accounting . 149
Peachtree W/FDQ . .220
Quicken . . . 29
COMMUNICATION
PROGRAMS
Brooklyn Bridge Universal . Call
Carbon Copy Plus . Si 05
CrOSSlalk XVI . 92
Crosstalk MK4 . 110
Desk link . 99
Flying Dutchman . 64
Lap Link Plus . 75
PC Anywhere IU . 69
Relay Gold 3.0 . 140
Smarlcomlll . 145
PROJECT MANAGER
Microsof I Project . $299
Super Project Plus . 255
Timeline Pro Ver. 3 .0 . 323
Tota I Harvard Ma nager 3 . 369
DATA BASE
MANAGERS
Clipper . . . $41 0
Condor 3 . . , . 325
Data Perfect . .263
DBase IV . Call
D Base IV Programmers Edition . 799
DB-XL Diamond 1.2 . 115
fox Base Plus 2.1 . — . . 190
Gen iter . 159
Knowledgeman2 . 295
Paradox2.0 . Cell
PFS: Professional Fife 2.0 .... . ..... Call
Powerbase2.3 . 159
Q&A3 0 . 150
Quicksilver Diamond 1.2 . 329
Revelation Advanced . 450
R Base For DOS . 425
Reflex . 90
Relate & Report . 112
VP Info 2.0 . Call
DESKTOP
PUBLISHING
Page maker Ver. 3.0 . Cell
PFS: Firsi Publisher 2.0 . Call
Ventura Publisher 2.0 . Call
DISKETTES
Maxell SH'DS/HD . $24
Maxell $V*“ DS/DD . 11
Polaroid Diskettes . .. Call
3M5‘/rDS/HD . 20
3M5'4“DS.'00 . 15
3M 6Q0A Data Tapes . 20
3M Tape Cartridges . Call
Verbatim 252D _ 10
Verbatim 2$HD. . 18
Verbalim3.5720K . 10
Verbatim 3.5 1.4M . 43
DOS
IBM 4.0 . SI 20
MS-DOS 4.0 . . Call
EDUCATIONAL
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing . .Call
Microsolt Learning DOS . $30
Turbo Tutor If . 49
Typing Tulor IV . . . 30
ENTERTAINMENT
Chuck Yeager Flight Simulator . 535
F15 Strike Eagte . . . . .....24
Gunship . . 35
Hacker II ... . . 30
Jet . . . .,39
KingsQuest . 30
Kings Quest IV , . . . . 30
Microsoft Flight Si mulator 3.0 . 33
Scenery Disk 1-7 . . . 17 efu
Sifent Service . 30
Speller Bee w/voice . . SO
Slar Flight . 40
Sub Battle ....... 30
Where in the World . 29
Many More Titles Available . Call
GRAPHICS
Chartmaster . $199
Diagram Master . 199
Energraphits2.0 . . . 199
First Graphics ... Call
Harvard Graphics 2.1 . . Call
In-A-Vision . 298
Mapmasler . — . .219
Microsoft Chart 3 .0 . 225
Newsroom . 31
Newsroom Professional . 65
PrintmaslerPlus . .29
Printshop . 33
Printshop Companion . 29
Print Shop Holiday . 20
Signmaster . 132
INTEGRATED
Ability . $56
Ability Plus . . . Call
Enable OA . 352
First Choice . Call
Framework III . 418
Microsolt Works . 83
Smart Software . Call
Symphony . . . . Calf
LANGUAGES
Microsoft C 5-1 . ..$255
Microsolt Quick Basic . . 59
Microsoft QuickC . Call
Ryan McFarlan Fortran . 390
Ryan McFarlan Cobol . 612
Turbo Basic. . 59
Turbo C 2.0 . 90
Turbo Pascal 5,0 . . 90
Turbo C Pro . 102
Turbo PascaVPro .. . , , . 162
Turbo Prolog 2.0 . 90
Turbo Prolog Toolbox . .59
CompuGUARD
ANTTVRUS
The Advanced PC Security Product!
Protect your PC against Virus Attacks
$89
■ Malicious Programs ■ Vandalism ■ Rtrvoogc
■ Oetlruclian of Files Time Bombs loss of Dala
Don't Waif Until It Hits You!!
SPREADSHEETS
L0luSl-23 .
Lucid 3D ...........
Microsolt PC Excel .
Plan Perfect .
Qualtro .
Spreadsheet Auditor
SuperCalcS .
Surpass .
Twin Advanced .
VP Planner Plus ....
$295
Call
Call
168
143
. .82
Call
329
69
.117
UTILITIES
Allways . $55
Battery Watch ........ . Call
Copy II PC . 19
Copywrite . 39
Core Fast . 75
Cubit . 39
DAVE. . 55
Desqview2.2 . Calf
Direct Access . 49
Duel . 48
Eureka . 99
Fastback Plus 2.01 . 104
FormtOOlS . 56
Formworx . Call
Gopher . 39
Graph in the Box Release 2 . 73
Grasp . . . > . . r . 79
Hot . 89
HTEST . 69
Lotus Metro . 69
MaceGold, . . 79
M icrosof! Wi ndows 286 . 55
Microsoft Windows 306 . 110
Norton Advanced 4 .5 . Call
Norton Commander 2.0 . . 45
Norton Utilities 4.5 . 48
Numerical Mel hods 59
Org PlusAdv . Call
PC Tools Deluxe 5.0 _ _ _ , Call
Prokey 4.0 . 70
Q DOS II . 49
Righlwriter . 53
Sidekick Plus . 120
Sideways . 39
SOS . . 44
SQZ Plus . 55
Super Key . ,59
Turbo Lightning . 56
XTree Pro . 64
CAD &
ENGINEERING
Autos ketch . Call
DesignCad2Dor3D . $148
Easy Cad 2.05 . 109
FastCad . . 1435
Generic Cad . . .. 49
Generic Cad Level 3 . . . . Call
Math Cad 2.0 . . . . 245
WORD PROCESSING
Borland Sprint . $122
Easy Extra . 54
Grammatriklll . 49
Grandview . 169
Lolus Manuscript . 319
Microsoft Word 5.0 . . . . . Call
Multi mate Advantage II . .259
Overlay Word Per feci . Call
PFS Professional Wrile . . . .Call
SPF/PC2.0 . 165
Varsity . 49
Volkswriler 3 . 139
Webster Spellcheck Pro . 33
Webster Thesaurus . 39
Will Maker . 34
Word Perfect 5.0 . 219
Word Per feet Executive . , 124
Word Perfect Library 2.0 . 65
Wordstar Pro Pack 5.0 . 239
Wordstar 2000 PI us . 205
Wordslar 2000 Plus Legal . .Call
Xy write III Plus . . . Call
CALL
FOR ITEMS
NOT LISTED.
2727 W Glendale Ave.
Phoenix. AZ 85051
1-800-421-3135
1-602-246-2222
WAREHOUSE DATA PRODUCTS Call on Novell and any other
Division of AZ Computer Corporation net WOrkinq products
2727 W. Glendale Ave. * Phoenix, AZ 85051
We gladly assist the first time buyer as well as the professional systems
analyst. Call our toll-free technical service at 1-800-421-3135.
HARDWARE
ARC PRO TURBO 88
♦640K 4.77/9.54 MHz
-Color Mono Graphics Card
♦ 04 Key Keyboard
♦ 2-RS-232 Serial Port
■ 1 - Parade] Primer Port
■ 1 - C lock Calendar
♦MS DOS 3.3
w/Monochrome Monitor . $809
w/ColOr Monitor . 959
ARC PRO TURBO 286
•512K RAM 0/18 MHz
* EGA/MOA Graphics Card
■ 101 Key Keyboard
-2 RS -232 Serial Ports
■ i - Parallel Printer Port
*1 -Clock Calendar
♦ MS DOS 3.3
w/Monochrome Monitor . . . . .. $1279
w/Color Monitor . . . . . 1439
w/EG A Monitor . . . .1559
ARC 386 Skyscraper . Call
ACCESSORIES
Copy UPC Deluxe Board . . . SI 01
Curtis Ruby Plus . . 69
Keytronics Keyboards . . Call
Logical Connection . Call
Marti II I Joystick . . 36
Masterpiece . 85
Masterpiece Plus . 95
NTC101 Keyboard . 69
$tedi-Watt . 65
150 Wat! Power Supply . 69
BOARDS
AST Advantage Premium 512K . $429
ASTt/OMiniXT . 52
AST Rampage/2, 51 2K . . . . . . Call
AST Rampage 206 Plus, 512K . . Call
AST Sixpac Plus W/64K . 129
AST Xformer . . Call
Everest RAM 2000 . 79
Everest RAM 3000 . . 89
Everex Magic Card . - . 16
Everex Multi Function EMS . Call
Everest Magic I/O . Call
Hercules Graphics. Plus . 179
inboard 386 PC . Call
Intel Above 286, 512K . Cali
Microsoft Mach 20 . 287
Orchid Tiny Turbo . . . 289
CO-PROCESSOR
INTEL
60287 . ....Call
80287*0 . . Call
80287-10. . Calf
80387*20 . Call
80387SX . Call
8087-2 . Call
8087 . Call
LASER PRINTERS
AST Turbo PS . $3199
Okidata Laser 6 w/t/F ... . 1518
Panasonic 4450 . Call
Toshiba Page Laser . Call
LAPTOP
COMPUTERS
Sharp Laptop . Call
Toshiba Trt 000 . $799
Toshiba T-120OFB . 1569
Toshiba' T-1299HB . .. -2419
Toshiba T-3200 . 3799
Toshiba T-S100 . 4895
Toshiba T-310OE . Call
Toshiba T-5200 . Call
Toshiba Accessories . Cail
ZeniihLaptop . . Call
VIDEO BOARDS
AST VGA Plus . . $349
ATI EGA Wonder 800 . 229
ATI VGA Wonder . . Call
EVEREX VGA EV675 . . . ..249
Genoa 5200 . Call
NEC 1024 . Cell
Orchid Designer 800 . 249
Orchid Pro Designer . 299
Orchid Pro Designer Plus . . Cali
Paradise Autoswitch EGA . Call
Paradise VGA Plus . Call
Paradise VGA Prolf . 385
Vega VRAM . Cali
AT&T
AT&T 6300 WG5. 10MHz . $899
AT&T 6286 WGS, 12MHz . 1499
AT&T 6306 WGS, 16 MHz . 2199
AT&T 6386. 20 MHz h 135 MB H.D. . 4599
AT&T6306E, 20MHz. 135 MBH.D. Lan
Server Tower . 5399
UPS
Emerson
UPS 200 . Cell
UPS 300 . Call
UPS 800 . Call
UPS 1500 . Call
EGA MONITORS
Goldstar EGA w/Swivel . Call
Mitsubishi Diamond Scan . .Cali
NEC-Multisync II . . . . Call
Princeton Ultra 16 . . Call
Princeton Ultra Sync . Call
Samsung CM 4531 . $369
Samtron Multisync . 449
SonyMultiscan . . Call
Zenith . Call
FLOPPY DRIVES
Taftb5l//360K . $79
Toshiba 3l4f 144 MB . 129
Toshiba 3'^720K . 109
HARD CARDS
P!usHardoard20MB . .. .$529
Plu$Hardcard40M& . 859
Plus Passport 20 MB . Cali
Ptus Passport 40 MB . Cali
TMG Card rive 20 . 329
TMG Card rive 30 . 349
TMGCardriveSO . 515
HARD DRIVES
Bernoulli 44MB . Galt
Bernoulli B 1201 . . . . $779
Bernoulli B120X . .Call
Bernoulli B220X . .Call
Co re Hard Drives . Call
Miniscribe 20 MB . 249
Priam _ ; . ..Call
Seagate 20 MB w/Cont . 259
Seagate 30 MB w/Cont . 279
Seagate 60 MB . Call
Seagate PS/2 25,30 . Call
S eagate ST 1 25 w/Cont . . 3T 9
Seagate ST 1 38 w/Cont . Call
Seagate ST 251 . 349
Seagate ST 4096 . 585
MODEMS
Everex 300/1 200 . , $69
Evers* 2400 1 NT . 139
Everex 2400 MNP I NT . 159
Everex 2400 MNP EXT . 189
Everex Mini 1200. .. , Call
Hayes 1200 . Call
Hayes 2400 . Call
Holmes T200INT . Call
Holmes 2400 INI . -Call
U.S. RobCliCS 24QQE . Call
U S Robot ics 9600 HST . . Call
U.S. Robotics Courier 2400 . Call
U S. Robotics Sportster 1200 . . Call
U.S. Robotics Sportster 2400 . . Call
DIGITIZERS
Kurla Tab lets ... . Call
S urn ma Graphics . . .Call
MICE/SCANNERS
Complete Scanners . . . $178
Datacopy . Cal!
HPScanjet . Celt
Logitech Clear . . Call
Logitech Hi Res . Call
Logitech PS/2 . Call
Logitech Scanman . Call
Logitech Serial . ,68
Microsoft Bus w/PaintbruSh . . . 92
Microsoft Serial w/Paintbrush . , . , . 92
Panasonic FX-RS 505 . Call
MONITORS
AMDEK410 . SI 45
Goldstar Amber w/Swivei . 79
MagnavoxRGB . 255
NEC GS Amber . . Call
NEC Monog raph w/Card . Call
Puncaion Max 12 .. . 138
Princeton Max 15 . . Call
Samsung TTL Amber . 76
Samsung Flat . 89
Samsung RGB w/liit . — ... 249
Sigma Laze rview . Call
Viking
Viking 1 . 869
Viking 10 Color . . . 2369
Viking 2400 . 1289
PRINTERS
ALPS
Allegro 24 . Call
CITIZEN
120 D . . . . ..$146
180 D . ..165
MSP 40 . 285
MSP45 . 41 S
MSP 50 . 305
Tribute 124 . 4S5
EPSON - Call on ail models
NEC Products . Call
OK (DATA - Call on all models
OK 1320/321 Call
OK1390 . Call
OK1391 . Call
OK1393 . Call
PANASONIC
108OT/M2 . 169
109H/M2 . . . Call
1092-1 . 329
1124 . Call
1524 . Call
1592 . 409
3131 . 329
STAR MICRONICS
NX 1000 . 179
NX 1000 Color . 238
NX15 . 306
NX 2400 . Call
TOSHIBA
321 SL, . Call
341 SL . Call
351 SX . Call
P3H . Call
FREE SOFTWARE!
Purchase over $100 end receive one ot these
disks absolutely FREE! Purchases over
$250 get two tree disks, over $400 gel three,
or get all lour disks when your purchase is
over $500!
1) MIXED BAG, 2} PC* WRITE.
3) FONT-SET, 4) OR. DATA LABEL.
WECARRYTARGUS LAPTOP BAGS Celt
MOREHOUSE Mk.
PRODUCTS
No Charge for
MasterCard or Visa
TERMS
Shipping on most sollware <s S5 OO
AZ orders + 6.7% sates tax
Personal/company check allow
lourteen (14} days to cleat We
accept purchase orders from
authorized restitutions lor 3.5%
more than cash price. All returns ore
subject to our approval- Thera will be
a 20% restock fee All prices are
subject to change Due to copyright
laws we cannot take back any open
software
Circle 245 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS: 246 )
• All Prices are subject to change,
- We do not guarantee compatibility.
We stock all available products.
Phone Hours: Monday thru Friday 6:30 a.m, -9:00 p.m. MST
Saturday 9:00 am. -5:00 p.m. MST
Technical Support: 1-800-421-3135
Call our 1-800-421-3135 within the USA and Canada.
WHAT’S NEW
Quotron Opens
Windows
Anew set of software that
operates in the Microsoft
Windows environment lets
Quotron PC users integrate
their Quotron financial infor¬
mation services with other
applications.
QuotData, QuotChart, and
QuotTerm make up the Open
Windows family. QuotData
lets you create databases of
Quotron real-time market
data that you can use with
other software. QuotChart is
a charting and technical-analy¬
sis program that is fed by the
QuotData application. Quot¬
Term is a terminal-emulation
application that gives you ac¬
cess to Quotron financial in¬
formation services while view¬
ing other applications on the
PC.
The Open Windows prod¬
ucts are available individually
or bundled as one package.
To run QuotChart and
QuotData you need an 80286
or 80386 DOS-based PC with
at least 2 megabytes of RAM, a
hard disk drive, one serial
communications port, one bus
mouse, an EGA card, DOS
3.0 or higher, and Windows/
286 or 386 version 2.0 or
higher. To run QuotTerm, you
need at least 640K bytes of
RAM, one serial communica¬
tions port, one bus or serial
mouse, DOS 3.0 or higher,
and Windows/286 or 386 ver¬
sion 2.0 or higher.
Price: Monthly charges per
workstation: QuotChart, $300;
QuotData, $250; QuotTerm,
$100. One-time charges: Open
Windows installation, $500;
Excel and Windows/386, $350.
Contact: Quotron Systems,
Inc., 12731 West Jefferson
Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
90066, (213) 827-4600.
Inquiry 1126,
84 BYTE * FEBRUARY 1989
SOFTWARE * BUSINESS
Quotron 's windows of financial data.
Present Yourself
From Genesis Data Sys¬
tems comes the Rapid Pro¬
totyping System (RPS): soft¬
ware that helps you design,
prototype, and present your
ideas.
The system contains three
modules: a screen designer, a
music designer, and a proto¬
typer. Also included are a
memory- resident screen-cap¬
ture utility, a music utility,
and a run-time utility.
The screen-design module
offers 16 foreground and back¬
ground colors, or 16 fore¬
ground and eight background
colors with blinking counter¬
parts. You can use the mem¬
ory-resident module to cap¬
ture screens from other
programs. You can also add
overlays and animation.
The module’s editing ca¬
pabilities let you edit, move, or
duplicate selected areas of
the screen. You can use macros
and Undo and Redo Undo
commands. You also have the
ability to customize lettering.
Simple, Fast, and Cheap Word Processing
Z Edit is what its develop¬
er calls a front-end
word processor. What does
it mean? Mainly, that ZEdit
is a fast, small, and surpris¬
ingly versatile package that
admittedly isn’t designed to
be everything to everyone.
Telecom Library admits that
ZEdit is “lacking in print so¬
phistication," but if you
want to spruce up ZEdit’s
files with fancy formatting,
you can load them into any
word processor, because
they’re plain-vanilla ASCII,
ZEdit takes up just 52K
bytes of RAM, and Telecom
Library says that makes it
ideal for floppy disk drive-
only laptop computers or for
applications where you want
to load a major appl ication on
top of ZEdit. And because
ZEdit and the documents
that you’re working on stay
in RAM, response time is
fast. You can even preload
documents into remaining
RAM— as many as you have
room for.
The package also lets you
have up to eight windows
open on the screen at once,
with each window having
either a different file or a dif¬
ferent view of the same file.
This gives you the unique
ability to simultaneously
edit the beginning, middle,
and end of the same docu¬
ment. You can also move
i
The music module uses
standard music notation for
composing or duplicating
music. The range includes
eighth notes to whole notes,
and you can use dotted or tied
rests. You have a selection of
four tempos, and you can build
key signatures, repeats, and
refrains. You can save tunes to
a disk file to play in the back¬
ground of presentations, either
from the DOS prompt or
through instructions you create
with the prototyping module.
You use the prototyping
module to pull the screens and
music together into presenta¬
tions. It features variable com¬
mands, branching instruc¬
tions, and real-time pauses.
RPS runs on the IBM PC,
XT, AT, PS/2s, and compat¬
ibles with 256K bytes of
RAM and DOS 2.0 or higher.
It supports color, mono¬
chrome, or TTL monitors.
Price: $249.95.
Contact: Genesis Data Sys¬
tems, 8415 Washington Place
NE, Suite A, Albuquerque,
NM 871 13, (800) 777-1437;
in New Mexico, (505)
821-9425.
Inquiry 1122,
continued
data between any open win¬
dows, not just between adja¬
cent ones.
You can configure ZEdit
to emulate the key com¬
mands of any word processor
you’re already familiar
with. It also features pull¬
down menus, mouse sup¬
port, and a built-in keyboard
macro facility.
To use ZEdit, you’ll need
an IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2,
or compatible.
Price: $59.95.
Contact: Telecom Library,
Inc., 12 West 21st St., New
York, NY 10010, (800)999-
0345; in New York, (212)
691-8215.
Inquiry 1121*
eu>
Acer
,yil
.0^
V***v
tfW**
WHEN THEIR CUSTOMERS DEMANDED
UNIX SYSTEM V SOLUTIONS, THESE
■MINISTRY LEADERS CAME TO SCO
s
tandards are made, not born.
The leading UNIX* System on three generations of PCs, SCO"
XENIX* System V has revolutionized the way people look at both
the UNIX System and PCs by revealing the amazing hidden potential
of these standard hardware platforms.
In the process, SCO XENIX has become a true standard in UNIX
System V software.
And like a true standard, SCO XENIX has opened up entire new
markets of opportunity that have never before existed for micro¬
processor-based computers.
Teamed with the latest generation of 80386- based
machines, SCO XENIX 386 allows systems created
from the widest range of hardware choices to surpass
the multiuser, multitasking performance of minis
or even mainframes — at a fraction of the cost
SCO XENIX can be found tunning thousands of
XENIX- and UNIX System-based vertical applications
on powerful business systems supporting 16, 32,
or even more users. And on graphics workstations
running advanced engineering and scientific
applications.
And, of course, on personal computers, running multiple DOS
applications concurrently, or networking XENIX and DOS systems
together.
Today, more and more end users are demanding the power
that only UNIX System V software can bring to their standard
hardware platforms.
And when leading developers, resellers, and computer manufacturers
who serve these users want to make sure they’re working with
a partner who’s the UNIX System software leader — for now, and
long into the future of UND( System standards— they
come to SCO.
They know that SCO will provide them with the
most comprehensive environment for UNIX System
applications, technical and marketing support,
training, and documentation in existence.
And they know they can trust SCO UNIX System
software to be the most complete and reliable
anywhere in the world, because it comes from the
most complete and reliable UNIX System software
company in the world.
The UNIX System software leader — SCO.
SCO
THE SANTA CRUZ OPERATION
The UNIX System Software Leader Worldwide
(800) 626-UNIX (626-8649) ■ (408) 425-7222 - FAX; (408) 458-4227 -TWX; 910-598-4510 scosacz • E-MAIL: ...!uunet!sco!iitfo info@sco.COM
INH it i (titered trtktniffc of AT1T. SCO and the SCO logo aft trademarks of The $t«a Otta pnc JdMX tj t imdemui etf Miaraft Gsepxaiioa S(B8
C 1984 Thr Santa Cna Operation, Int, 400 EOdial Steel, P.Q. Boi 1500, Santa Out, CA 95061 USA The Santa Cm Operation. Ui , Cewr. (tuaw Une, Eadord tffft UfliwJ Kingdom. +44 £fl)?23 81fii44, FAX: +44 (QWi 513741, TES: 9tI3J2m»t6
Circle 203 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 * B Y T E 85
WHAT’S NEW
SOFTWARE • GRAPHICS
RIX Presents VGA
Graphics
The VGA paint program
ColoRIX offers 256-color
VGA support for the IBM
PS/2 Models 50, 60, 70, and
80 in 360- by 480-pixel reso¬
lution without any hardware
additions or modifications.
You can manipulate those 256
colors from a palette of
256,000.
Some of the key functions
included in ColoRIX are a
graduation command that lets
you create color graduations, a
Frepal command that lets you
free any of the 256 displayed
colors from the color palette,
a Drag command that lets you
leave a multiple-image trail
as you move your selected
image anywhere on-screen.
and Smooth and Smudge
commands.
Price: $199.
Contact: RIX SoftWorks,
Inc., 18552 Mae Arthur Blvd.,
Suite 375, Irvine, CA 92715,
(800) 345-9059; in California.
(800) 233-59S3.
Inquiry 1135,
Processing Images
with Zip
Process images, control
video digitizers, and
display video images with
Zip, a program that controls
the ImageWise video digi¬
tizer transmitter and receiver.
The program offers more
than 20 image-processing
functions, including convolu¬
tion, histogram equalization,
and linearization, that allow
you to manipulate and improve
gray scale images. You can
also combine images.
Using the ImageWise digi¬
tizer, you can capture images
from a video camera, VCR,
or other video source in 256-
by 244-pixel resolution with
64 levels of brightness.
Zip has 15 screen- display
modes with three levels of
zoom, color, and gray -level
displays, minimum error tech¬
niques, dithers and duolones,
and a VGA mode displaying 64
gray levels. You can save
screen displays in PC Paint¬
brush and MacPaint file for¬
mats for use in desktop pub¬
lishing or for further editing.
And you can prim outputs on
dot-matrix, ink-jet, color,
and laser printers. The pro¬
gram also produces halftones
on laser printers.
The program runs on the
IBM PC, XT, AT, or compat¬
ibles with 384K bytes of
RAM, DOS 2.0 or higher, and
an EGA or VGA, To capture
video images, you need an
I m age W i se d igi t i zer/t ra us -
miuer and a video camera or
VCR. To display video
images in 64 levels on a televi¬
sion monitor, you need an
ImageWise receiver/display, a
video monitor, and an NTSC
(National Television System
Committee) composite.
(The ImageWise was a
Circuit Cellar project by Steve
Ciarcia in BYTE, May
through August 1987. It is now
available through Hog ware.)
Price: Zip, $79; ImageWise
video digitizer; $398 .
Contact: Hog ware Co., 470
Bdleview, St. Louis, MO
63119, (314) 962-7833.
Inquiry 1 134,
continued
How a software engineer
got to captain the
lunar landing module.
The Computer Museum is everything
you’d expect, and a lot of things you
wouldn't.
Of course, the museum contains a
collection of the most significant accom¬
plishments in the history of information
processing. But it’s not just a great place
to see things, it’s also a great place to
do things.
There are over twenty interactive ex¬
hibits at The Computer Museum. You can
design a car, create your own fractal land¬
scape, or even captain the lunar landing
module on the Apollo flight simulator.
So. the next time you're in Boston, stop
by The Computer Museum. You'll discover
it’s more than a lot of machines, it’s also a
lot of fun.
For more information, or to become a
Museum Member, write The Computer
Museum, or call (617) 423-6758.
The Computer Museum
BOSIOM
There's something in it tor everyone
300 Congress Street, Boston, MA 02210
86 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
cnmmm
GATEWAY
Rjujpjyimffat wetare tm best source for comj
luolrconfiguratiorw available, all priced incredit
all backed by our unsurpassed service, y
‘We artery hapffy'fttat our System /s at the |
top of the stack in both price and performance, I
but it is your courteous, service that is uncon- I
tested by the competition.”
- Pierce Haviland - Kingston, NY
i "Overall, I feel that your product is out-
sta&jkig and your service has been
exoVQn|jL
. - Eill^Baren - Stonington, CT
e nano
20 Mhz 386 EGA
1 Meg 60NS Ram
1.2 Meg 5VV' Drive
1.44 Meg 3.5" Drive
80 Meg Hard Drive (28 MS)
1 to 1 Interleave
EVEREX EGA Board
14" EGA Monitor
1 Parallel / 2 Serial Ports
101 Key Keyboard
MS DOS w/GW Basic
$2995.00
386SX $2695.00
(Same configuration as above)
Steve Apiki & Stanford Diehl
Oct. 1988, BVIE w A- j
11^ Review of 20 386
• "Emerging
matures^ '"
• “The system ran without VP
a glitch. ”
• “We were truly surprised to see a
system of this caliber selling for
^ Jess than $3000. ”
• “When .evaluating the whole package,
The GATEWAY 386 surpasses all
the others!" . ■
6J-70NS Ram
'ait State (SJ. J
PNVeg 3.? Drive
40MymardDnptf6MSr
1 to 1 Interleave
EVEREX EGA Board & . m
1 4" EGA Monitofe^lp
1 Parallel / 2 SinSHPorts
101 Key Keyboard
MS DOS w/GW Basic
$2395.00'
1?Mhz $2195.00
25 Mh/§86VGA
jU/leg 6MS
32 Bit Slot Open
1 ,2 Meg 5 ’A" Drive
1 ,44 Meg 3.5' Drive
80 Meg Hard Drive (28 MS)
1 to 1 interleave
16 Bit VGA Board
NEC MULTI SYNCH II .
1 Parallel / 2.Sprial Ports
1,01 Key Keyboard
MS DOS w/GW Basic
80387 and Weitek Sockets
Vertical Style Case I ■ " |
$3995.00
Circle 95 on Reader Service Card
Gateway 2000
Back
Du'^lo ‘the 'Volatility io 'the drai
CMO.. .Your Nationwide Source
^%\°0 <*jV& p.™)** *> 'M0K
ss^ss-Sss23
> Mitrnsoli . Calendar
g-.ii Time
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. H ExpW*°" Keyboard
* 102 ncli/ScriaVGaOT£ PorlS S AQQ
; *699
;”Crfro,.n«o^»"2^S>
FC-TOO’s - -
ATARI
Atari
800XL 64 K Computer $ 69
I3GXE 1 32K Computer J49
XF55I Disk Drive (XL/XE) ]R9
Access
Leaderboard Golf 22
Accolade
Hardball 19
Avant Garde
PC Ditto (IBM Emu/.nion) 64
FTL
Dungeon Master 29
Indus
GTS- 1 00 V/i" ST Drive 189
Sub- Logic
Plight Simulator I! 33
Soft Logik Corp.
Pu bl ishi ng Pa n n e r 39
Supra
30MB ST Hard Drive 659
Timeworks
Desktop Publisher 89
ATARI 800 XL & XP551
Disk Drive is Software
'259*
‘Includes: 80QXL. 551 Drive &
Star Raiders. Missile Command.
Asteroids. Defender, & Qix
WordPerfect Corp.
WordPerfect $159
AMIGA 1
1 - -
Aegis Development
Animator/ Images
$ 89
Draw Plus 2000
159
Sonix
49
Cinemaware
Rocket Ranger
39
Electronic Arts
Deluxe Photo Lab
99
Deluxe Video 12
89
Epyx Software
XJ-500 Joystick
15
Gold Disk Software
Professional Page
259
Micro Illusions
Photon Paim
69
Micro Systems Int
Raw Copy VI 3
44
Micro Systems Software
Excellence
189
New Tck Inc.
DigLVicw 2.0
149
Digi-Paint
44
Sub -Logic Corp,
Plight Simulator II
39
WordPerfect Corp.
WordPerfect
189
MACINTOSH pi
Olympia
NP-30 Mac 150cps
289
Selkosha
SP-1000AP Mac
239
Eve rex
EMAC 20 Deluxe 20MB
595
EM AC 60T 60MB Backup
895
PCPC
lim SCSI Hard Drive
759
Cornerstone
Single Page Display SE
899
Dual Page Display SE
1699
Magna vox
9CM080 14" VGA Display
519
RastcrOps
1948S Trinitron
3395
Sigma Designs
Page View SE
849
Laser View ]]
1899
New Image Technology
Mac Scan Pro Sheetfeed
1399
MacScan Pro Flatbed
1789
Practical Peripherals
Mac 2400 Stand Alone
239
Shiva
NetModem V24GQ
479
MONITORS SI
i i _ _ i
Anuiek
Video 210 Amber
89
I Video 410 TTL Monochrome 145
Color 732 VGA Color
399
Magna vox
7BM623 12” TTL Amber
79
CM8762 14" Comp / RGB $249
9CM053 14" HiResEGA 369
9CM062 14" VGA Display 359
NEC
JC-1402 Multisync 589
Packard Bell
PG-1272 12" TTL Mono 79
PB- 1472 14" TTL 132 Col 109
PB-1422EG 14" HiRes EGA 359
Princeton Graphics
Max-I2e 12" TTL Amber 149
ZENITH
ZCM 1490 1 r VGA
'619
Seiko Instruments
CM- 1 430 14" VGA
Taxan
770+ Multi Vision Display
MULTIFUNCTION
649
529
AT D-Zuckcr Board
Color Half Card 79
Monochrome Graphics Ad pi. 79
AST
Six Pak Plus Board 149
VGA Plus Adapter 389
Boca Research
TopHat 1 28 K Expansion 129
Boca Ram/ AT 0-4 MB Board 149
Boca MultiEGA 189
DCA
Irma 2 3278 Board 749
Your Source for Hardware, Software & Peripherals
88 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
*
For Quality Computer Products.
This Month’s Featured Product:
dl _ _ _ M ■ l
ft
EPSON FX-1050
132 Column, 264 CPS Printer $444
Eve rex
Magic I/O AT Par/Scr $ 59
Ram 3000 Deluxe 0- 3M B Bd 89
Micro Enhancer EGA 169
5th Generation
Logical Connection 256K 479
Hercules
Graphics Card Plus ] 79
IDFAssociatcs
IDE- 525 1 Local Emulation 579
Intel
A hove Board 2 Plus w/ OK 319
Above Board PS/ 286 w/5 1 2K 4 1 9
Inboard 386/PC 80386 CPU 869
8087 IBM PC/XT CoP. 99
80287-8 IBM XT BMHz CoP 239
Orchid Technology
ProDesigner VGA 329
Paradise
AuioSwilch EGA 480 Adpt Call
Video 7
Vega VGA Adapter 285
STORAGE DEVICES
ATD-ZuckerRoard
Tandy 30MB HardCard 479
Evcrex
Floppy Stream 40 40MB Im 359
Excel Stream 40T 40MB Im. 529
Miniscribe
8425 20MB 3l/>" 40Msec 259
3650 40MB 5Wf 61 Msec 349
Mountain Computer
TP-4340 40MB Ini Tape 319
TD-4440 40MB Ext Tape 459
Plus Development
20MB HardCard 549
Seagate
ST- 225 20MB w/eont 269
ST- 238 30MB w/com 289
Sysgen
Bridge- Pile 5 Vi External 249
Smart I mage 60 MB Internal 479
QlC-Eilc 60MB External 599
COMPUTERS
AST
Premium 286 Model 80 1499
Compaq
Deskpro 286/386 Desktops Call
Portable 286/386 Call
NEC
Multi mate Laptops Cal!
PC-TOO
512K BMHz 80286 Desktop 899
Sysgen
ProSysicm I2MHz w/40MR 1999
Toshiba
T 1 000 8088 Laptop Call
T 1 200 Floppy/ HrdD Lptp Call
Zenith
80286/386 Desktops Cali
SuperSpori Laptops Call
Anchor
6480 C64/128 1200 Baud 99
520 ST520/I040 1200 Baud 129
1200 Baud External 109
Atari
XMM301 XL/XE 300 Baud 44
SX-212 ST Modem 89
Avatex
1 200 HC External 99
2400 Baud External SI 79
ATD-Zuckcr Board
2400 Baud External 129
Evcrex
Evercom 24 2400 Internal 149
Evercom 24H+ 2400 Ikl Ext 199
Hayes
S man Modem 1200 Baud 289
Smart Modem 2400 Baud 4 39
Intel
2400B Classic Internal 249
Mu rat a
Ml 200 Facsimile 779
Practical Peripherals
1200 Baud Stand Alone 109
2400 Baud Stand Alone 189
Sharp
FO-220 Facsimile Machine 1099
Supra
2400 AT 2400 Baud Atari 169
U.5. Robotics
1200 Baud Direct Ext. 109
2400 Baud Direct Ext, 199
PRINTERS
Brother
M- 1 709 240c ps, 132 Cob 479
HR-20 20c ps Daisywheel 369
HR-40 40cps Daisywheel 639
EPSON I.Q-850
24-Wire, 80 Cot,
*499
Epson
LX-800 1 80c ps. 80 Col 189
FX-850 264cps, 80 Col Call
LQ-500 180cps, 24-Wire Call
LQ-950 264cps, 24-Wire Call
LQ-1050 330eps, 132 Col Cal!
NFC
P2200 Pin writer 24-Wire 349
P520O Pin writer 265cps 579
Okidata
ML- 182+ 1 80c ps, 80 Col. $249
ML- 320 300c ps. 80 Col 359
ML- 390 270cps, 24 -Wire 519
Panasonic
KX-P 1 080i 1 44eps. 80 Col 1 69
KX-P 10911 194cps. 80 CoL 189
KX-P1124 192cps, 24-Wire 349
Star Micron ics
NX- 1 000 Rain Bow Color 239
NX-2400 24-Wire, 80 Col 369
Toshiba
P32I-SL 2 16cps, 24- Wire 499
SOFTWARE
Ash ton -Tale
dBase IV 499
MuhiMate Advantage II 289
Borland
Pa radox R - Dm a ba sc 449
Quattro 159
Central Point
PC Tools Deluxe 49
Computer Associates
AeePac Easy Accounting 79
DAC Software
DAC-EASY Accounting 59
5th Generation
FasiBack Plus S 99
I MSI
Opti Mouse w/Dr Halo HI 79
Logic tech
C7 Mouse w/ So ft ware 79
ScanMan Scanner 219
Lotus Development
Lotus 1-2-3 299
MECA
Managing Your Money l 1 9
Meridian Technology
CarbonCopy Plus 5 0 1 19
Microsoft
Serial or Buss Mouse 109
Peter Norton
Advanced LHilities 79
Peachtree
Complete Accounting 1 69
Quarterdeck
DESQView 2.02 79
Software Publishing
1st Choice 3 0 89
1st Publisher 2 0 79
Professional Write 2.0 179
The Complete PC
HandSean For PC 179
Complete Answer Machine 269
WordPerfect Corp.
WordPerfect 5.0 219
Xerox
Ventura Publishing 2 0 499
Ventura Publishing 2 0 499
M5C
OMNI MOUSE
*49
Your Source for Hardware , Software & Peripherals
in U.S.A.
800-233-8950
In Canada call: 800-233-8949
All Other Areas call: 717-327-9575 Fax call: 71 7-327-1 21 7
Fducational, Governmental and Corporate Organizations
Call toll-free: l -800-22 1 4283
CMO, 101 Rcighard Ave.* Depi. Al, Williamsport* PA 17701
Over AQ0,Q00 SATISFIED CUSTOMERS * MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED
POLICY: Add 3% (minimum S7.G0) shipping and handl¬
ing Larger shipments may require additional charges Per¬
sonal and company checks require 3 weeks to dear For
fasti: r dd i very . use your c red 1 1 card 0 r send cash ier's check ” “
or bank money order Credit cards are not charged until we ship. Pennsylvania
and Maryland residents add appropriate sales tax. All prices are U 5A prices and
are subject to change All items are subject to availability Defective software will
be replaced with the same item only. I lard ware will be replaced or repaired at our
discretion within the terms and limits of the manufacturer s warranty Wc cannot
guarantee compatibility. All sales are final and returned shipments are subject to
a restocking fee. We are not responsible for typographic or photographic errors
A 1 02
MMC
FEBRUARY 1 989 • B Y T E 89
Circle 61 on Reader Service Card
MORE dBASE POWER!
FOR ONLY
$189.95!
dll MAN V: A database
anager for your PC that has
dBASE III+ power, Report
Writer, and Compiler
all in one package! Now
you can buy a powerful
dBASE III+ work-alike
that includes more
features and power than
any other competitive
product on the market, at a
fraction of the cost!
” dBMAN competes directly with dBASE III+, it runs many operations
much more quickly and costs less than half the price.” Bruce Brown.
PC Magazine.
Unlimited Power. We extended the dBASE II 1+ language to
bring you to a new level of programming power and versatility.
Reports without programming! With our Report Writer you
can easily create invoices, sales statements, form letters,
employee lists, multi-lined and columnar reports, and more. All
without programming!
Speed unequalled in performance. dBMAN V’s Greased
Lightning! Compiler executes dBASE applications up to 16
times faster than dBASE III+ , and comes with an unlimited
distribution runtime license at no extra cost!
We are offering a 30 day money hack guarantee if not fully
satisfied. (When purchased from a Versasoft authorized dealer.)
And, our multi-user version of dBMAN for Novell, IBM PC Net
retails for only $499.95!
Just compare our price with the competition:
Program
Interpreter
Compiler
Report Writer
TOTAL
dBMAN V
$189.95
included
included
$189.95
Fox BASE
$395.00
$495.00
$149.95*
$1039 95
Clipper
N/A
$695.00
$149.95*
$844.95
Quicksilver
$199.00
$599 00
$149.95*
$947.95
dBASE 111+
$795.00
N/A
$149.95*
$944.75
dBASE IV
$1295.00
included
included
$1295.00
Suggested retail price for comparable relational full-screen report writer
Multi-User Version:
LI Locks records and Ides as a set to
prevent deadlock
J Supports transaction update and roll
back (Novoll TTS systom) and moro.
□ Available for Novoll Network, IBM
PCNei. Xenix, UNIX and other major
operating systems.
Call today to order your
copy of dBMAN V !
dBMAN Highlights:
□ dBASE II and dBASE IIU compatibility
□ 320 extended commands and (unctions
□ Password protection and data security at fiefd
level
□ BCD numbers
□ Smgle command menus: vertical, horizontal,
scrollable and pull down menu
□ Program debugger/editor
Report Writer Highlights:
□ User delined pop-up windows and more.
□ 9 group levels
LI Conditional printing ot any items
□ Compute running sums, counts, averages,
minimums and maximums
□ Relate and report from up to 9 database files
with lookup (one to one) and scan (one to
many) relations and more
=S==3rf Versasoft Corporation
~^rn — 4340 Almaden Expwy, Suite 250
- San Jose, CA 95118
g - Phone:408-723-9044
Telex: 650-263-5806
Fax:408-723-9046
dBASL III. jmi IV j>r tulcnurikt id Athlon I M IvtBASE. l\ a Imkmtfk id l-ov Solr» jr< (.'Unucr u t tndcnurl <>l Naiilm.-I.ci. Oukl-Sili it i
j Katie nurt. id WonfTVcti SyMcrm Si, veil NrtwtlfV IBM KN«. XcnU. UNIX are |r*krruik< id Mi, yell. IBM. Micimnft . AT&T Bell
l-»hiirMiirirMr'pci.-l,»cl>
VERSASOFT
WHAT’S NEW
SOFTWARE • CONNECTIVITY
Put Your Mac in the
Driver’s Seat
MacChuck 1 .5 lets you
control an IBM PC or
compatible from a window on
the Macintosh. You can also
use the program as a file
transfer utility between the two
formats. A network commu¬
nication feature, added to ver¬
sion 1 .5, enables you to oper¬
ate a PC equipped with an
Apple LocalTalk card, to be
run by any Macintosh in a
network.
Other enhancements in
version 1.5 include improved
file transfer capabilities and
enhanced support for the
Mac II.
The program comes with
the software and cables needed
to connect a Mac Plus, SE,
or II to a 9- or 25-pin IBM PC
serial connector. An adapter
is also available for older Mac
systems.
Price: S99.95.
Contact: Vano Associates,
Inc., P.O.Box 12730, New
Brighton, MN 551 12, (612)
788-9547.
Inquiry 1128.
Two with Remote
Access
If you need to access your
computer from remote loca¬
tions, there is a variety of re¬
mote-control programs on the
market. Two previously re¬
leased programs have had re¬
mote capabilities added to
them.
Triton Technologies’ Ses¬
sion/XL is a remote-control
package for use with CO/Ses-
sion communications software.
Session/XL goes a step fur¬
ther by including a scripting
and tasking communications
language. Using the language,
you can set up automatic cus¬
tom communications sessions.
For instance, a host PC can
use Session/XL to automati¬
cally poll remote PCs for
daily sales activity, transfer
the data to the host, and then
download new information.
You can also use the pack¬
age to automatically patch soft¬
ware, as well as upgrade and
install new versions of applica¬
tions. Session/XL uses 16-bit
CRC (cyclic redundancy
check) error checking and
automatic compression for file
transfers. You can also use
the package to manually take
control of remote systems.
The program also has
error- and screen-checking ca¬
pabilities. When Session/XL
encounters an error, it’s auto¬
matically recorded and the
program continues with the
next activity. Screen check¬
ing also lets you check a spe¬
cific line or range of lines for
a character string.
Session/XL runs on your
host sytem. Each of the remote
PCs must have CO/Session.
Both programs run on the IBM
PC, XT, AT, PS/2s, and
compatibles with DOS 2.0 or
higher.
Price: Session/XL, $225;
CO/Session application li¬
cense, $125; CO/Session
support license, $175.
Contact: Triton Technol¬
ogies, Inc., 200 Middlesex Es¬
sex Turnpike, Iselin, NJ
08830, (201) 855-9440.
Inquiry 1130.
The asynchronous com¬
munications program Bit-
Corn has been upgraded with
remote-access features, a
scroll buffer review, and
automatic data compression
with error correction.
The remote-access feature
lets you run a program on the
host from a remote PC. The
scroll buffer review lets y*.u re¬
view up to 500 lines of text
that have already scrolled by
on the screen. And the data-
compression feature speeds up
file transfers by 2 to 32
times, according to Bit
Software.
continued
90 BYTE • FEBRUARY 1989 Circle 240 on Reader Service Card
Circle 191 on Reader Service Card
QNX
VS
UNIX
OS/2
Architecture can make or break a computer system.
Don't make your systems bear the
brunt of massive, monolithic monsters
like Unix or OS/2. Instead, build your
systems with QNX. The lean, efficient
OS that’s flexible enough to support
any application.
MULTIUSER, MULTITASKING,
NETWORKING, AND MORE... QNX
is both multiuser and multitasking.
OS/2 isn’t multiuser. Unix may be
multiuser and multitasking, but it will
hog a huge chunk of your hard disk and
system memory. And neither Unix nor
OS/2 can do integrated networking.
QNX, on the other hand, hums along
using an efficient 150K of RAM, yet
provides a powerful multiuser, multi¬
tasking, and integrated networking
environment.
TRUE DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING.
A QNX-based PC LAN lets any user
share any resource on the network -
programs, data, devices, even CPUs-
without going through the bottleneck
of a central file server. With QNX you
get mainframe power at micro prices.
ADDED VALUE FOR VARS. QNX is
flexible enough to run on any mix of
PCs, ATs, PS/2s, with or without dumb
terminals. Even diskless workstations
are supported. So whether you start
small or grow to mainframe proportions,
you can easily build and maintain
powerful, fault-tolerant systems with¬
out spending a fortune on hardware.
REALTIME PERFORMANCE. Only
QNX combines the performance of a
dedicated realtime executive with the
convenience of a rich development
environment that includes a host of
utilities, C compiler, full-screen editor,
symbolic debugger, and multiple full¬
screen windows.
DOS SUPPORT. For those who need
their daily dose of DOS, QNX allows
a DOS application to run as a single
task on each PC on the network.
FREE TECHNICAL SUPPORT. While
users of other operating systems have
to cough up hefty fees for support, QNX
developers enjoy free hotline support
and free BBS access. You’ll get prompt
answers to your questions and you’ll
share ideas and insights with fellow
developers in the QNX community.
It's time to make the move to QNX.
THE ONLY MULTIUSER, MULTITASKING,
NETWORKING, REALTIME OPERATING
SYSTEM FOR THE IBM PC, AT, PS/2,
AND COMPATIBLES
Multiuser
10 (32) serial terminals per PC (AT)
Multitasking 64 (150) tasks per PC (AT)
Networking
2.5 Megabit token passing.
255 PC's and/or AT's per
network. Thousands of users
per network.
Realtime
4,250 task switches/see (AT).
Message
Passing
Fast intertask communication
across the network.
C Compiler
Standard Kernighan and Ritchie,
Flexibility
Single PC, networked PC's,
single PC with terminals,
networked PC's with terminals.
No central servers. Full sharing
of disks, devices and CPU’s.
PC-OOS
PC- DOS runs as a QNX task.
Cost
From US $450 ►
Runtime pricing available.
For further information ora free demonstration
diskette, p/ease telephone (613) 5 91-0931.
Quantum Software Systems Ltd.’Kanata South Business Park*175Terrence Matthews Crescent* Kanata, Ontario, Canada *K2M 1W8
QWX is a registered hactafmr* Of Quaittunn Software Systems Ltd. The UNIX Opwalmg System is a registered trademark of AT AT. IBM. PC, AT. XT and PS/2, PC -DOS and OS/2 are lradumartiS of International Business Machines.
Circle 100 on Reader Service Card
Special Introductory Offer
PCSS-8I
INTELLIGENT SERIAL BOARD
$69500
— Our most powerful serial card to date.
— 8 Co-processor driven channels per card.
— Dynamically Allocated Buffers.
— BIOS Enhancement Software included, supporting
up to 130 channels per computer.
— Baud rates to 57.6k on a half size card.
MODEL 9000 (EHE)PROM PROGRAMMER
— Fastest programmer on the
\ market.
—Quick & Intelligent programming
algorithms.
—Programs all chips, to one mega¬
bit, including single chip proces¬
sors.
— Programs largest variety of chips including Prom
replacements, Eproms and EEProms.
Lite k
DEVELOPMENT HARDWARE & SOFTWARE
P.O. Box 2310; Bay St. Louis, MS 39521-2310 U.S.A.
ORDER TOLL FREE 1-800-255 GTEK (4835) FAX: 1-601 -467-0935
MS & Technical Support 1-601-467-8048
IF YOU DESIGN ADD-IN BOARDS FOR THE NEW
IBM PS/2 SYSTEM YOU NEED OUR
©
QWTrUljaiPA©! © In) IJ IF
Just some of the Functions implemented:
Program. Option Select * 32 Bit Data Bus Contr.
Multi Device Arbitration * Channel Check Indicator
Memory and I/O Transfer contr. * Wait State Log.
16 Programmable Address Levels.
It comes in a 68 pin PLCC and is fabricated in 1.5u
CMOS, only consumes 150mW. You can replace 10
to 20 TTL devices, a board real estate saving of
20 to 65 sqcm. A reduction of board developement
time of some weeks is realistic. Only requires 2
additional 74LS245 for 16 bit systems, or 4 for
32 bit systems. The chip costs US$ 15,- in
quantities of 5000 and is available now.
EDC GmbH. Taunusstr.51
8 MUNICH 40 W. GERMANY
Tel. (89)3507076
Fax. (89)35961 80
Tx. 5212599
Dealer inquiries invited
IBM, PS/2 and Micro¬
Channel are registered
trademarks of IBM
WHAT’S
SOFTWARE • C
To run BitCom Deluxe,
you need an IBM PC or com¬
patible with 640K bytes of
RAM and DOS 3.0 or higher.
Price: $79.
Contact: Bit Software, Inc.,
830 Hillview Court, Suite 160,
Milpitas, CA 95035,(408)
263-2197.
Inquiry 1131.
A Software Meter
Reader for Your LAN
Connect Computer calls
Turnstyle the electronic
equivalent of a software li¬
brary, enabling multiple users
to share a controlled number
of copies of a software pro¬
gram on a local-area
network.
To use Turnstyle, you load
it on your network and enter
data about each copy of the
software that resides on the
network; Turnstyle controls
the number of copies in
circulation.
The program includes a
monitoring system that tells
you which users are on the
system and what software they
are using. You view or print
reports of listings about the
programs and their use. You
can also use Turnstyle to keep
track of the serial numbers of
your software, although it’s
not necessary to enter the
numbers into the database.
Turnstyle requires an IBM
PC or compatible running
Novell, Banyan, 3Com, or
IBM network operating sys¬
tems. You also need at least
300K bytes of RAM on the
network file server. The
workstations need DOS 3.0 or
higher, a network interface
card, and at least 7K bytes of
RAM.
Price: $195.
Contact: Connect Computer
Co., 9855 West 78th St., Suite
270, Eden Prairie, MN
55344, (612) 944-0181.
Inquiry 1132.
92 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989 Circle 82 on Reader Service Card
NEW
ONNECTIVITY
LAN Utility for
Windows Users
In an attempt to simplify
the use of Microsoft Win¬
dows applications running in
a network, Automated Design
created Windows Worksta¬
tion, a set of utilities that sup¬
ports Novell’s NetWare.
The program consists of
the Windows Menu (which in¬
cludes Secure Station, Screen
Saver, and Windows Intercom)
and the printing utility, Win¬
dows Print.
Windows Menu is an appli¬
cation organizer designed spe¬
cifically for networks, ac¬
cording to Automated Design.
It uses between 10K bytes
and 12K bytes of system mem¬
ory and allows the LAN sys¬
tem supervisor to build custom
menus with password protec¬
tion and help messages.
Secure Station lets you
lock your workstation while
Windows applications func¬
tion in the background. The
utility monitors security vio¬
lations and reports them to the
user and the LAN system
supervisor.
Screen Saver kicks in auto¬
matically if you leave your
workstation for a specified
period of time.
Windows Intercom sends
network messages to and from
Windows users. You can also
reply to messages without leav¬
ing your current application.
It also supports messaging be¬
tween users of different Net¬
Ware file servers.
Future versions of this util¬
ity package will support other
major LAN operating sys¬
tems, the company reports.
Price: Windows Menu, $695;
Windows Print, $695; bundled
together for $1195.
Contact: Automated Design,
133 Johnson Ferry Rd., Suite
1 12, Marietta, GA 30068,
(404) 988-0969.
Inquiry 1129.
continued
1024X768 IBM COMPATIBLE VGA VIDEO CARD
monitors
TECHNOLOGIES INC.
Circle 23 on Reader Service Card
ATL VGA WONDER — ATI TbthnokwioaJnc; Mi^ti sync — NEC Home Electronics Inc.:
AUTOCAD— Aylodesk ln&; WINDOWS— Microsoft Inc.: GEM— Digital Research Inc.:
VENTURA- X^oxCorp : HERCULES - Hercules Computer Technology Inc.:
,_M, VGA, EGArCGA — trnernattonat
Business Machines Carp.
s! the Phenomenal VGAWONDER does it all at IBM Hardware level
compatibility with automatic monitor detect and no dip switches or
jumpers to set. A HOT CARD for the 286/386 POWER USER with AUTO
BUS DETECT for 8 or 16 bit slots, running with a 16 bit datapath with
1:1 interleave. 100% IBM HARDWARE LEVEL COMPATIBILITY means
that ALL software and operating systems designed for IBM systems will
run. 1024 WILL BE DISPLAYED IN COLOR ON STANDARD MULTI¬
FREQUENCY MONITORS. Although these features are expected from
ATI they are NOT AVAILABLE from other manufacturers. EGA on all
monitors including RGB & TTL means a perfect card for
networks. MOUSE ON BOARD! ATI built the mouse right
in to this one, why not? No extra charge! VGAWONDER
is available in both 5 12 K and 256K Versions. Ask your
dealer for more information.
&1NC/*
Technology you can Trust.
ATI Technologies fnc
3761 Victoria Park Aw.. Scarborough, Ontario
Canada Ml W 3S2 Telex: 06 966640 (ATI TOR)
Ter: (416) 756-0718 Fax: '
WHAT'S NEW
94
VECTOR/SIGNAL PROCESSOR
VECTOR 32
• ATScT DSP Floating Point Processor running at
24MHz • Plug-in card for !BM™PC* AX XT or
PS2/30 • 1024 point complex floating point FFT in
8,9ms • Expansion facilities including I MByte
memory & 100 KHz/330 KHz 12 bit data acquisition
• 'C & Fortran vector processing libraries • Full
development environment
PARALLEL PROCESSOR/REAL-TIME CONTROLLER
PP2000
• Harris RTX 2000 Real-time RISC processor • Plug¬
in card for IBM ™ AT • 100ns cycle time •
Combines multiple FORTH instructions into a single
cycle • rC compiler • Executes FORTH as its
assembler • Upto 512 kBytes O or 1 waitstate static
RAM * Expansion connector for high performance
data acquisition • 16 TTL outputs & 8 TTL inputs
capable of 10 MBytes/seo
The Vector 32 & the PP20Q0 form part of SMIS's
comprehensive control, digital & image processing
range. Data capture cards and memory expansion are
available. Soon to be released are DSP32C boards &
a graphics processor based on the TMS 34010 chip
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
SM1S, 130 Elm Street, Cambridge MA 02139. TeM617> 354-7S41
SMIS Ltd, Alan Turing Rtf* Surrey Research Park. Guildford, Surrey
GU2 5YF. UK. Tel: <44) 483 506611. Fax: (44) 48363114.
AGENTS:
Communications Automation and Control, 1642 Union BLvd -
Suite 0, Allentown* PA 18103, Tel (215) 776 6669
Diantek. RO. Box 141. 6 8500, Toreby Sweden. Tel: 05604 19 90.
Fax: 0560 136-65.
Electronic Tools, Am Waldfried hof 7, D4030 Rotingen 1,
W. Germany, Tel: (02102) 841013. Fax: (02102) 841000,
BYTE- FEBRUARY 1 989 Circle 210 on Reader Service Card
S G F T W A R
Fastback Plus
with New Features
Fastback Plus 2,0 offers
improved restore and
backup functions and an im¬
proved user interface.
The restore function now
has a feature that estimates the
number of files, amount of
volume, and time needed to
complete the restore, as well
as the names for the backup
sets that should be used. Dur-
ing restore, version 2,0 warns
you if there isn't enough
space on the target drive.
Another new feature,
Smart Restore, prompts you
for the exact backup disks
needed and warns you iff you
insert the wrong one.
Other improvements in ¬
clude the option of appending
incremental backups to an
existing backup set. The pro¬
gram now warns you if
you’re using disks with data on
them. A verify function lets
you compare backup files with
those on the hard disk.
Fastback Plus 2.0 runs on
the IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2ss
and compatibles with at least
320K bytes of RAM and DOS
2. 1 or higher.
Price; $189.
Contact: Fifth Generation
Systems, IncM 1 1200 Industri-
plex Blvd,, Baton Rouge, LA
70809, (504)291 -7221-
Inquiry 1136,
Forget
Remembering
Your Backups
One of the many reasons
why so few people make
backups of their hard disk
data is simply the memory fac¬
tor: It’s easy to forget to do
it. But SitBack, from SitBack
Technologies, will remember
for you,
SitBack is a memory-resi¬
dent backup utility that re¬
quires less than 15K bytes of
t
* OTHER
memory. Once you load it and
tell it which files to back up,
it constantly monitors your
hard disk for new or changed
files. Then, when you don't
use the keyboard for a speci¬
fied length of time, it goes to
work automatically, backing
up the files to any DOS device
you define, such as a floppy
disk drive, a removable hard
disk drive, a cartridge, a sec¬
ond hard disk drive, or a net¬
work device.
The program works with
any MS- DOS -based system
and is compatible with IBM
NetBIOS networks.
Price: $99.
Contact: SitBack Technol¬
ogies, Inc., 7219 West 95th
SL, Suite 301, Overland
Park, KS 66212, (913)
894-0808,
Inquiry 1137,
Copyright It
To simplify the process of
obtaining copyrights for
your software creations. Syn¬
thetic Intelligence has devel¬
oped Copyright-It. The pro¬
gram opens with a license
agreement, and Form TX
from the U,S. Copyright Of¬
fice is available in the main
menu.
Copyright-lt runs you
through the advantages and
disadvantages of copyright¬
ing, takes you step by step
through the registration pro¬
cess, and offers other forms
that you may need. When
you're filling in the fields of
the TX form, you have three
levels of help available in each
field.
The program runs on the
IBM PC, XT, AT, and compat¬
ibles with 256K bytes of
RAM and DOS 2.11 or higher.
Price: $25.
Contact: Synthetic Intelli¬
gence, Inc., 286 Fifth Ave.,
Suite 707, New York, NY
10001,(212) 967-2399.
Inquiry 1138*
continued
It's easy. Just enter the CADAM
Corvette® Convertible Sweepstakes
by June 30, 1989, and picture your¬
self in the Ultimate Heartbeat, from
Chevrolet® See your CADAM dealer
today for rules and entry forms. Mo
purchase necessary*
It's just as easy to get your CAD/
CAM/CAE program moving quickly
with CADAM®’s software family. Soft¬
ware General Motors relies on to design
world-class cars like their new Corvette.
Software built around the famous
CADAM user interface, which shares a
common data format. Software relied
on daily by more than 100,000 design
professionals around the world. That’s
because CADAM for IBM® mainframe
computers, PRO CADAM’" for Unix®
workstations and new MICRO CADAM
Plus’" for high performance PC’s are the
most powerful integrated CAD/CAM/CAE
systems ever.
Everyone wins with CADAM. The
Ultimate CAD/CAM/CAE Production
Tbol. Call toll-free for the name of your
nearest dealer. You could Win the
Ultimate Heartbeat.
*No purclkase necessary. Winner will lie selected in a random drawing.
Sweepsufaj. valid only w ithin fluniincnlal ITS. A- and Canada. Often
Id licenc'd driven Only Yoid where prohibited by law. Entries must h#
ptfttrtijfkd by June 30. 1989 and received lit July 14, 19*9 to he
eligible (i-rtairi mher restriction!, apply; set rumpleie rule printed cm.
affinal entry fours, araibhle only from authorized CADAM dealers,
CADAM . t .
The Ultimate CAD/CAM /CAE Production Toot
cflDflm me
A LOCKHEED COMPANY
Call toll free 1-800-255-5710
CAUAM is a registwed trademark of CADAM IMC. Chevrolet and Corvette
are registered trademarks oF Chevrolet Division of General Motors
Corporation . IBM is A registered trademark of International Business
Machines Corp, MICRO CADAM and PRO CADAM are trademarks of
CADAM INC. Unix is j registered irutenirit ofXT&T. ®I9«9 CADAM INC
Circle 45 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS: 46)
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 95
WHAT’S NEW
SOFTWARE • OTHER
Desktop Publishing
with an Apple II
Personal Newsletter, a
desktop publishing pro¬
gram for the Apple II, has
been upgraded. Version 2.0 in¬
cludes a headline editor that
produces 1 8- to 72-point head¬
lines, double-strike and dou¬
ble-density printing, and a
laser printer driver.
The program lets you lay
out pages, create graphics, and
integrate text. You can im¬
port text from most word pro¬
cessors, the company re¬
ports, Clip art, nine text fonts,
and sample newsletters are
included.
The program runs on the
Apple lie, lie, and IIGS,
Price: $59.95.
Contact: Softsync, Inc, , 162
Madison Ave., New York, NY
10016, (212) 685-2080.
Inquiry 1139,
Direct from
SomeWare
A full-featured statistical
r\ package called Ecstatic
comes from a company
named SomeWare in Vermont.
The package has a transfor¬
mation utility that lets you
create new variables using
programming statements along
with a screen-oriented data
editor.
The program also has util¬
ities for managing data sets,
including a merge utility that
enables you to combine two
data sets even if they share
only some of the variables or
cases.
EcStatic runs on any IBM
PC, XT, AT, PS/2, or compat¬
ible with DOS 2,0 or higher,
512K bytes of RAM, and a
floppy disk drive.
Price: $49.95.
Contact: SomeWare in Ver¬
mont, Inc,, P.O. Box 215,
Montpelier, VT 05602, (800)
451-4580; in Vermont, (802)
496-3173.
Inquiry 1118.
BrainMaker: A
Neural Net Simulator
\A/ ^ neural network
ft simulation program,
you can design, build, train,
test, and run neural nets. The
program lets you decide how
you want your neural net as¬
sembled and trained, and it
does the rest.
According to California
Scientific Software, Brain-
Maker runs at up to 500,000
neural connections per second
and supports five types of
linear and nonlinear neurons.
The program offers I/O facil¬
ities for visual or symbolic
data manipulations.
Sample neural nets are in¬
cluded on optical character
recognition, speech synthe¬
sis, image recognition, and
image enhancement.
To run the program, you 11
need an IBM PC, XT, AT,
PS/2, or compatible, 256K
bytes of RAM, DOS 3.0 or
higher, and a monochrome or
color display.
Price: $99.95.
Contact: California Scien¬
tific Software, 160 East Mon-
tecito, Suite E, Sierra Madre,
CA 90124, (818) 355-1094,
Inquiry 1120.
Makes Peripheral Sharing
And Office Networking Fast, Affordable,
Today's office environment
requires a flexible solution for the
costly problem of equipment and
effort duplication.
Carrier Current Technologies, Inc,
has the solution, with a line of cableless
products— The Carrier Office Network.
Our expandable, cabkkss network can be
used for peripheral sharing, file transfers,
network updates, modem sharing and
electronic mail service.
Office Network can be installed,
expanded or moved in minutes.
Give us a call. And find out just how
The Carrier Office Network features
Carrie rNET, a cabkkss data transfer system.
CarrierNET connects quickly to the serial
port of your PC and plugs into the existing
electrical wall outlets of your building,
turning your office's electrical system into a
data transfer network. It does all this without
costly, unsightly cables. And, The Carrier
economical and efficient a Carrier Office
Cabkkss Network can be,
cmm=T
by Carrier Current Technologies, Inc.
4905 Pine Cone Drive
Durham, North Carolina 27707
919/490-4970
Dealer Inquiries Welcome,
% BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 51 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS: 52)
l
YOUR NEW YEAR’S COMPUTER HEADQUARTERS
YES-386 20MHZ
► 20 MHz Mlcronics Motherboard
k 1 MB RAM Expandable to
2MB/More
> 200 Watt Power Supply
f 1.2 MB floppy Drive [Japan
Made}
1 101 Enhanced Keyboard
1 Hi-Res Monographics/Printer Card
1 12" Mono Amber Monitor
(720x348)
$1988
25 MHz COMPLETE. . CALL
YES-286 12 MHz
* 12/10/6 MHz Motherboard
* 512K RAM Expandable to 1 MB
* 200 W Power Supply
* Hard/Floppy Controller
* 1,2 MB Floppy Drive (Japan Made)
* 101 Key Enhanced Keyboard
* Hi-Res Monographics/Printer Card
* 12" Mono Amber Monitor (720x348)
COMPLETE
SYSTEM
$888
10 MHz COMPLETE . . . CALL
TURBO 10MHz
HARD DISKS
► 10/4,77 MHz Turbo Motherboard
■ 256K RAM Expandable to 640K
■ 150 Watt Power Supply
» 360 K Floppy Controller
■ 360K floppy Drive (Japan Made)
1 84 Key Keyboard
- Hi-Res Monographics/Printer Card
■ 12" Mono Amber Monitor (720x348)
COMPLETE
SYSTEM
$448
8/4.77 MHz SYSTEM ... $428
Seagate 20 MB & WD-GEN . $249
Seagate 30 MB & WD-27X . 279
Seagate 40 MB, ST 251 . 349
Seagate 40 MB ST 251-1 . 399
Seagate— All models . . Best Price
MicropoMs — All models available . Best Price
Micropolis 72 MB . 549
DISK DRIVES
TEAC 360KB/1 .2 MB
FUJITSU 360KB/1.2 MB
3 W 720KB/1 .44 MB
APPLE COMP. Disk Drive
$65/85
60/80
00/90
lie $90/1 !c $99
MONITORS
14" Monitor {720x348)
14" Flat Screen Amber/Green
15" Dualscan Monitor
EGA Monitor (640x350)
Samsung Multisync
NEC Multisync Plus. It. XL
Tape Back Up
VGA Board & Multisync Monitor .
125
128
325
475
CALL
LOWEST
650
ADD ON BOARDS
Monographics Card w/Printer Port . *45
Color Graphic Card w/Printer Port . 40/45
EGA Cards . CALL
286-10 mhz Motherboard Q/K . 225
286-12 mhz Motherboard 0/K . 275
Turbo 10 mhz 8088 0/K 75
Video- 7- EGA/VGA . 175/249
Orchid Designers . 325
720/360K Floppy Controller Card . 18
Multi 1/0 Card . 48
Printer Card . 2D
RS-232 . 20
Clock Card . . - — . 2 5
Game Card . , . 20
U4/1.2M/720K/36QK Floppy Master .... .48
1.2 MB Floppy Controller . 48
286 1/0 Card., . . 39
2nd Serial Kit (8088/80286) . 15/25
286 W.D. Floppy/Hard Controller 99
2MB EMS RAM Card (8088/286) . 75/85
Internal Modem (1200/2400) . 49/99
SERVICE
8088/286 & ALL MODELS
Hardware Installation & Troubleshooting
Software Setup & Training
1 Available For Emergencies With
Appointment
Reasonable rates
MISC.
Gender changer . . Mi
Printer cable 679715' . . . 6/9/15
6' RS-232 cable [M-F. M-M, F-F] . 8
Monitor Extension Cable .... _ 8
8
0
27
35
45
54
6
20/24/29
CALL
Keyboard Extension Cable
Hard/Floppy Disk Cable
8088 Case
8088 Case 286 Lookalrke
286 Case .
286 Slide-In Case .
Diskette Box (cap 1 00 pcs)
Data Switch Box (AB:ABC:A8CD)
Dot Matrix Printer . .
Power station (with surge) 29
Surge Protector (UL Approved) 10
101 Enhanced Keyboard . . . . . 39
LogiTech OEM Mouse . 50
Mouse Pad . . . « . 5
Printer Stand [80/132 Columns) 14/19
System Stand . 14
Joystick 20
We Carry Too Many Items To List Fully
Call For Products Not Listed
Y.E.S. MULTINATIONAL INC
Major Corporate P.O.’s and University P.O.’s Welcome.
Dealer Inquiries Welcome • (415) 657-4888
44833 FREMONT BLVD., Fremont, CA 94538 Mon-Sat 10-7 FAX (415) 656-0118
TlEflMS We accept cash, cashiers checks , personal checks {15 days lo clear) and approved purchase orders California residents add applicable tax , Shipping
& handling via UPS Ground 50.50/ib., UPS BLUE $i.50/ib ,, minimum charge $5. Prices and policies subject to change without notice and we reserve
the right to substitute equivalent /ferns. We are not responsible tor any typographical errors
Circle 503 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 - BYTE 96MW-1
REGIONAL
What’s New
MIDWEST
The South Eastern
Michigan Computer
Organization
The South Eastern Michi¬
gan Computer Organiza¬
tion, which first started
meeting in 1976, has its roots
in an early computer club at
Wayne State University and at¬
tendees of a seminar by
MITS, which produced the
Altair computer.
The group now has about
300 members, 100 of whom
usually attend the general
meeting, which is held the sec¬
ond Sunday of every month at
1 p.m. at Oakland University
in Rochester, Michigan. The
group is composed mostly of
IBM and Macintosh users.
Special-interest groups include
Macintosh, Commodore 64,
IBM beginners, Lotus 1-2-3
and business users, system
languages, and Timex/
Sinclair.
The group publishes a
monthly newsletter, Data Bus ,
and provides access to bulle¬
tin board systems. Annual
dues for SEMCO are $15.
Contact: South Eastern
Michigan Computer Organiza¬
tion, P.O. Box 02426, De¬
troit, MI 48202,(313)
284-2816.
Inquiry 1092.
The Development
Center Institute
The Development Center
Institute is a nonprofit
corporation founded to pro¬
vide information and education
to software project manag¬
ers, systems analysts, pro¬
grammers, and others who
need to improve system quality
and productivity.
Based in Indianapolis, the
group sponsors conferences
with sessions on productivity
in the Unix environment, sys¬
tem development and en¬
hancement using intelligent
workstations, evaluating
software productivity, proto¬
typing, and product compari¬
sons of application generators
and reverse and reengineer¬
ing products.
The group is sponsoring a
conference at the Peabody
Hotel in Orlando, Florida,
from February 12 through 15.
Price: Registration for the
conference costs $645 for
members, $695 for non-
members.
Contact: Development Cen¬
ter Institute, Inc., P.O. Box
44087, Indianapolis, IN
46244, (317) 846-2753.
Inquiry 1093.
The Third Annual
Users Group Summit
Meeting
The Association of PC
User Groups’ third annual
users group summit meeting
proved that coordinating an as¬
sociation of about 80 users
groups, representing about
100,000 computerists, can be
like a meeting of the United
Nations General Assembly: a
collection of representatives
with diverse opinions on just
about every topic on the meet¬
ing’s agenda. And no matter
how small the group, it wanted
to be heard.
continued
a
SICK & TIRED OF DBASE®?
You have to generate that new data file program, but you haven’t used dBase® since the spring. And the man says “You know
dBase®! Make me up the program, pronto!’’ So you make a stab at it and find that you’re looking up the specific format of
every second command. What a waste of time!
ASSOCIATES Is there a better way?
Shouldn’t there be a software product that is as automated as we have been expecting— where you just “tell the computer
what you want and it does it”? |
Now there really is such a simply powerful tool! A I v/ •
Pro-C builds application programs. You do not have to study and memorize somebody else’s convoluted logic that he
calls a “programming language. ”
Need an inventory control program to sell to an important customer? Pro-C can let you put a fully functional package
together— with window and context-sensitive help, all the bells and whistles— inside of an hour! That gives you some time to
think about how it should look before you have to wade into the project. How many days would it take you to do the same
thing with your present methods?
You really do not have to be tied to using “C” or dBase® every week for fear of losing all the time invested in learning
that command structure. Let the computer do for you what you help it do for others. Let it do the boring and repetative stuff!
“Well, if it’s so easy it can’t be good.” Did you, such a strong proponent of computerization, really say that?
Pro-C is the next logical step.
Pro-C frees up the time of the programmer, who has been freeing up his client’s time with good packages.
And even if you’re not a hot shot programmer— even if you just want to make up a few database programs for the
church, or the lady down the hall in accounting— you can make those simple programs look so good in a short time that they
could sell in a store!
In fact, there are going to be so many useful and saleable programs made by Pro-C people that a separate marketing com¬
pany is being set up to take the pretty good ones and sell them to the public at large, with the proceeds being split, of course.
So you can have fun and make money, too (just like they promised in this industry, long ago).
The list price for Pro-C is US$485, CDN$595. This is an investment that you can make back in a week.
Think of what you can do with a money-making package like this! Now stop thinking and start doing!
call OS Associates
Scott Butler
(313) 965-6327 in Detroit , or (519) 977-8068 in Windsor
96MW-2 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 500 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS: 501)
Com-lbk Data Systems,
Inc.
Special Offer— while supplies last— A Bahamas Cruise 5 days and
4 nights with every 286 or 386 purchase. $675.00 value. Call for details.
We also carry a complete line of
major brand computer
peripherals.
Custom configurations are our
specialty. On site servicing
available.
SPECIAL COMPLETE SYSTEM
MODEL IQ-8088— 1 SYSTEM
10 mhz Mother Board“640K Ram
(1) 360 K Floppy Drive
Mono Monitor--84 Keyboard
MultM/O— Phoenix Bios
Parallel, Serial, Game Ports
Printer Panasonic 109Oi
MS-DOS ver. 3.3
1 20 MB Hard Disk
$1295°°
Model IQ 8088 S
$895 00
286-S
STANDARD A/T MODEL IQ-80286-S
Configured to your specifica¬
tions at a very reasonable
price, our A/T is built to suit
your every need.
YOUR PRICE
$1695-00
With CGA $1970.00
EGA $2170.00
VGA $2370.00
MODEL IQ 80286T
Tower System $1795
Available in 3 case styles
SPECIFICATIONS
MOTHERBOARD:
POWER:
DISKS:
CABINET:
KEYBOARD:
DISPLAY SET:
WARRANTY:
80286 microprocessor key selectable normal now available with
Sumacs 80286 motherboard 6/12 MHz (8.0 mhz) and turbo (12.5
mhz) processing speeds, socketed for the 80287 math
coprocessor, eight expansion slots (2 eight bil — 6 sixteen bit},
clock-cel 1 meg. RAM included. Expands to 4 meg. Mufti I/O
and Award Bios included.
200 wall, switching power supply with leads for 4 devices.
(1} 12 meg, half height, dual sided— quad density (loppy drive.
(1) 40 megabyte, half height, fixed disk drive. 40MS access
time.
Fuli size AT style drawer cabinet with corporate security lock
panel mounted reset switch, and status LEDs for turbo, power
and fixed disk.
Enhanced style, 101 keys with LEDs to indicate NUM locks and
CAPS lock status, separate cursor pad. numeric touch pad. top
mounted function keys
Hires, text and graphics, monochrome card (Here, com pat.)
bi-res, TTL amber monochrome monitor. 1 parallel port.
i year on parts and labor limited depot warranty. 30 day money
back guarantee if not satisfied with our product, for any reason
'OPTIONS AVAILABLE
386-S
Powerful performer at a practical
price. The ultimate for any
business. Just in time for the
tax season. Perfect for any
accountant or business
application.
MODEL IQ 8 03 86 -S
—THE SUPER WISE CHOICE!
$3195.00
with EGA mentor $3495.00
CGA $3470.00
EGA $3670.00
VGA $3670.00
Tower System 0 t-V
— as shown —
80366-T $3395.00
- COMTEK HAS DESIGNED THEIR POLICY TO BETTER
SERVE, HELP AND PROTECT THEIR CUSTOMERS.
STANDARD A/T MODEL IQ-80386-S
SPECIFICATIONS
MOTHERBOARD:
slsasa
90386 microprocessor, user selectable (4 .77, 8.0 and 16.0
mhz) upgradeable to 20 mhz. Processing speeds, socketed
for the 802B7 and 80367 math coprocessor, eight expansion
slots (3 eight bit, 4 sixteen bit, and 1 thirty-two bit), clock-
cal. 2 meg. RAM included, upgradeable to 16 meg.
Includes Phoenix Bios and Multi-I/O card.
POWER: 200 watt, switching power supply with leads for 4 devices.
DISKS: (1) 1.2 meg, half height, dual sided— quad density floppy drive
and 1.44 floppy.
(1) 80 megabyte, full height, fixed disk drive Seagate
CABINET: Full size AT style drawer cabinet with corporale security
lock panel mounied reset switch, and status LEDs for turbo
power and fixed disk.
KEYBOARD: Enhanced style, 101 keys wiih LEDs to indicate NUM lock
and CAPS lock status, separate cursor pad. numeric touch
pad, top mounted function keys.
DISPLAY UNIT: Hires, lex! and graphics, monochrome card (Here, compel)
hi res. TTL amber monochrome monitor, 1 parallel port.
WARRANTY: 1 year on parts and labor limited depot warranty 30 day money
back guarantee if not satisfied with our product for any reason
30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
COMTEK MAKES SURE ALL THEIR CUSTOMERS GET
Isl PRIORITY IN SALES— SERVICE-CUSTOMER
RELATIONS
S REASONilWYEAn ON PARTS AND LABOR-LIMITED DEPOT WARRANTY
• COMTEK’S FRIENDLY STAFF IS BETTER TRAINED TO
HELP AND SUPPORT YOU IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE
WITHOUT LEAVING YOU ON HOLD.
*
%
oA
SYSTEMS • SYSTEM OPTIONS • NETWORKING
CALL FOR SPECIFICATIONS
In N.H.: 603-363-8333 1-800-942-4255 Outside of N.H.
RO Box 221 ^
Corner of 9 & 63, Chesterfield, N.H. 03443
*
sf
Tech Support Call: 603 363-8334
XT and AT are registered trademarks of International Business Machines.
Circle 498 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS: 499)
FEBRUARY 1989 'BYTE 96MW-3
REGIONAL
WHAT’S NEW
MIDWEST
During the meeting, held
in Las Vegas during Fall
COMDEX 1988, users group
officers and representatives de¬
bated everything from wheth¬
er the APCUG ’s name should
be changed to how a world¬
wide bulletin board system
(BBS), announced during the
meeting, will be run. But one
of the main topics of discus¬
sion centered on membership
and voting rights,
Several users group mem¬
bers questioned the APCUG’s
minimum membership re¬
quirement for groups to gain
APCUG voting rights. Ac¬
cording to Jerry Schneider, the
executive director of the AP¬
CUG, the requirement is nec¬
essary to prevent users
groups that aren’t legitimate
from taking advantage of the
APCUG. But several people
pointed out that of the ap¬
proximately 6000 users groups
in the country, 4000 have
less than 50 registered mem¬
bers. The smaller groups
were concerned that although
they could join the APCUG
and take advantage of its bene-
fits, they could not vote.
Others were concerned that if
the smaller groups were
given the vote, they could gain
too much influence.
The APCUG also dis¬
cussed membership require¬
ments. According to Mr.
Schneider, users groups that
warn to join the A PCUG
should hold regular meetings
and have a hard-copy or elec¬
tronic newsletter or a BBS.
The first draft of the
group’s charter proposes a
minimum membership of 25.
To be a voting member of the
APCUG, a group would need
at least 100 members. Since
the APCUG is not a users
group— it’s more similar to a
trade association— it’s impor¬
tant that users groups that join
the APCUG make sure their
members receive information
in a timely manner* “If
groups don’t have the mecha¬
nism to get information, they
won’t be providing the ser¬
vice,” Mr. Schneider said*
Without a BBS or newslet¬
ter, information about the
APCUG’s activities would
likely reach the contact person
in the group and stop there.
“Groups that [the APCUG]
wants to exclude are groups
that aren’t really serving
users,” said Jonathan Roten-
berg, president of the Boston
Computer Society*
The APCUG is an associa¬
tion for users groups that want
to improve communication
among themselves and major
computer product vendors.
Its membership includes inter¬
national groups and groups
from every region of the U.S.
Contact: The APCUG, 9523
Burdett Rd,, Burke, VA 22015,
(703) 425-9896.
Inquiry 1087.
Send Us Your
Local News
BYTE is expanding its
coverage of local events in
the Midwest region. If you
would like your event, confer¬
ence, seminar, or users
group covered, please send in¬
formation to: Regional Edi¬
tor, BYTE, One Phoenix Mill
Lane, Peterborough, NH
03458. Please take into ac¬
count a three-month lead
time for your event.
Important TIPS* for BYTE Subscribers:
Receive Product Information 10 Days Earlier!
All you need is a touch -tone telephone and your subscriber I.D. number.
See instructions facing the Reader Service Index in the back
of this issue for outrageous time-saving opportunities!
♦BYTE's Telephone Inquiry Processing Service
96MW-4 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Two PCs
from Vendex
Vendex Technologies, the
company that brought you
the original HeadStart
Turbo-888-XT, has released
two computers: the Head-
Start II Plus, which offers
100 percent VGA, IBM PC
XT, and PS/2 Model 30 soft¬
ware compatibility; and the
HeadStart III, bundled with
several software packages.
The HeadStart II Plus runs
at 9.54 MHz (switchable to
4.77 MHz) and comes stan¬
dard with 64GK bytes of RAM
and a six- in-one VGA graph¬
ics adapter. It is powered by an
8088-1 microprocessor and
comes with the Friend- Link
Telecom System, which fea¬
tures a built-in handset for
voice and data transmission
and a 2400 -bps modem.
The HeadStart III is based
on the 80286 microprocessor
chip running at 8 or 12 MHz
with one wait state and 1 mega¬
byte of standard RAM, ex¬
pandable to 3 megabytes. The
standard system includes a
32-megabyte hard disk drive
with a 28-mil l i second access
time and 1-to-l interleave.
Bundled software includes
Ashton-Tate's Framework II,
the HeadStart Advanced En¬
vironment, 3D Perspective,
Executive System's XTree,
Splash!, Publish It, and Micro¬
soft’s MS-DOS 3.3 and
GWBASIC. The system in¬
cludes three full-length slots
and a VGA, EGA, MCGA,
CGA, MDA, and Hercules
graphics card.
Price: HeadStart II Plus,
$2295; HeadStart III, $2995,
Contact: Vendex Technol¬
ogies, Inc,, 40 Cutter Mill
Rd., Suite 438, Great Neck,
NY 11021, (5 16) 482-4255.
Inquiry 1082,
REGIONAL
WHAT'S NEW
MIDWEST
Norton Utilities’
Disk Doctor
The advanced edition of
Norton Utilities 4,5, the
latest version of the popular
data-recovery package, con¬
tains a utility that automati¬
cally diagnoses and corrects
problems with your hard and
floppy disks. Available with
the advanced edition only,
the utility, called the Disk
Doctor, lets you repair disks
whether you're technically
adept or not.
Both the advanced and
standard editions of the up¬
grade include the Norton
Control Center, with which
you can control system set¬
tings, including keyboard rate,
video mode, screen and pal¬
ette colors, serial ports, stop
watches, and time and date.
You can store the settings in
a file and reuse it as a re¬
placement to DOS's Mode
command.
Both editions also include
a Batch Enhancer for creating
interactive batch files with
zooming dialog boxes. Other
improvements include Data
Protect, which saves informa¬
tion to help Quick Unerase
and Unremove Directory re¬
cover heavily fragmented
files and directories automati¬
cally; speed-key searching,
rename directory, and
EGA/ VGA graphics support
for 43- and 50-line modes of
the Norton Change Direc¬
tory; ability in the advanced
edition’s Format Recover to
save an accidentally refor¬
matted hard disk; and Safe
Format, which you can use to
reformat a floppy disk in as
little as 3 seconds without per¬
manently losing data previ¬
ously on the disk,
Norton Utilities 4.5 works
with the IBM PC, XT, AT,
PS /2s, and compatibles with
DOS 2.0 or higher and at least
192K bytes of RAM.
Price: Standard edition,
$100; advanced edition, $150.
Contact: Peter Norton Com¬
puting, 100 Wilshire Blvd.,
Ninth Floor, Santa Monica,
CA 90401, (213) 319-2000.
Inquiry 1079.
Convert Apple-
Works Files
to PC Formats
ross-Works, a utility for
AppleWorks, the most
popular integrated software
package for the Apple II,
transfers and converts files
into DOS-compatible files with
all formatting information
intact, SoftSpoken reports.
The program lets you con¬
vert AppleWorks word proces¬
sor files into WordPerfect
format, while retaining such
formats as underlining, bold¬
face, centering, and margins.
Spreadsheets are converted to
Lotus U2-3 files that have not
only the correct data, but
also intact spreadsheet formu¬
las and cell formats. Simi¬
larly, you can convert
AppleWorks database files to
dBASE Ill-compatible files,
complete with original field
names. You can also use the
program to transfer ASCII
text files.
The package comes with
an 8 -foot cable that plugs into
the Apple's or the IBM or
compatible's serial ports. On
one end, the cable has three
connectors that fit the Apple
lie, lie, and IIGS models.
On the other end, a 9- or 25-
pin connector fits your IBM
PC, XT, AT, or compatible's
serial port. SoftSpoken re¬
ports that if the computers are
more than 8 feet from each
other, you can transfer files by
using a 1200-bps modem.
Cross- Works can transfer
and convert on the fly a
30,000-byte AppleWorks
spreadsheet file into a Lotus
1-2-3 WK! file in about 20
seconds, according to the
company.
Price: $79,95,
Contact: SoftSpoken, P,0.
Box 97623, Raleigh, NC
27624, (919) 878-7725.
Inquiry 1074.
FEBRUARY 1989 • BYTE 96MW-5
om
c
Orders, Call Toll Free
Tech Support & Information
Fax Number
1-800-888-2983 1-612-881-9197 1-612-881-9197
Mailing Address: 9801 Dupont Ave. Sa, Suite 175 Bloomington, MN 55431
ORDER DESK & TECHNICAL SUPPORT OPEN: M-F 9a.m.-5p.m. CST
Model
3000A
16MHZ-386
floppy controller
$1795.00
•64 K Static RAM cache
•1 MB -100 NS Dram
•1.2 MB Floppy
•Hard drive
EVEREX
Model
1700C
12MHZ-286
•1 MB 100NS Dram
*12 MB Floppy
•Hard drive
floppy controller
$1295.00
National On-site Warranty Service Available on ALL EVEREX Computers
EVEREX
Model
1800
8MHZ-286
•512 K RAM
•12 MB Floppy
•Hard drive
floppy controller
$799.00
LOGITECH
2 Button
Serial
Mouse
SPECIAL
*39.35
Enlarged Enter, Shift, Backspace Key
ACCOUNTANT 111 KEYBOARD
• Tactile /Click
Key Switch
• XT, AT and Novell
Compatible
Ctrl
Capslock
Alternative
SPECIAL BYTE PRICE
CALL!
Adjustable Solar
Powered Calculator
/
On/Off Switchable For
Numeric Pad and Calculator-
WE WELCOME EDUCATION AND CORPORATE ACCOUNTS
96MW-6 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
IF WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR IS NOT LISTED — CALL!
NORTH EDGE SOFTWARE
TIME SLIPS III .
OKI DATA
320 9- PI N .
321 9 PIN
390 24-PIN . .
391 24-PIN
$359.00
.$489.00
S4S9.Q0
$679 OD
393 24-PIN S3 69.00
INTERNAL 1200 00 MODEM .. .$129,00
INTERNAL 2400 BD MODEM $189.00
EXTERNAL 2400 ID MODEM . . $229,00
ALDUS
PAGEMAKER
$499.00
ASHTONTATE
D BASE 111 + .
. $395.00
D BASE IV .
$46900
FRAMEWORK III .
$439,00
M ULTIMATE ADV II .
$279.00
DRAW APPLAUSE
.5259,00
flAPIDRE
. $189.00
All
VGA WONDER
$329.00
VIP . .
$269.09
2400 ETC MODEM INT.
$179 DO
CENTRAL POINT
PC TOOLS DELUXE
$45.00
COPY II PC
*21,00
COPY II PC OPTION .
$109,00
DAC
DAC EASY ACCOUNTING . 559.00
DAC EASY PAYROLL $59.00
OAC EASY LIGHT $45.00
DELIA TECH
DIRECT ACCESS 55500
DIRECT NET . .5149,00
EXTRA . 55900
DIGITAL RESEARCH
GEM DESKTOP $2900
GEM DRAW PLUS . $169.00
GEM 1ST WORD PLUS . .,.$109.00
GEM WORD CHART 5114.00
PRESENTATION TEAM 527900
DESKTOP PUBLISHER 516900
EVEREX
10MB -IMS CHIPS ■ 10MB BOARD 5129.00
3MB-256 CHIPS - 3 MB BOARD $8900
8MB-IMB CHIPS LIN 40 8MB B0ARDS245.0Q
G-575K HALF CARD . $39.00
266 MHZ TURBO BOARD . $245.00
EVERGflAPHlCS PLUS MONO $59.00
MICRO-ENHANCER DELUXE EGA $14900
EV 673 EVGA-VDA ADAPTER $25900
INT 40MB TAPE-FLOPPY CONI . . ,5319,00
EXT 40MB TAPE $59900
1200B INTERNAL MODEM . $75.00
24008 INTERNAL MODEM . $149,00
24006 EXTERNAL MODEM $17900
EXECUTIVE SYS
HOT V 4j0 . . $95.00
XTREEPRO $69,00
XTREE . $39jOO
FUNK SOFTWARE
IN WORD . 559.00
NOTEWORTHY . 549.00
SIDEWAYS . $45.00
GENERIC SDH
GENERIC CADO 30
PEN PLOT .
ddt put .
AUTO CONVERT 3.0
AUTO DIMENSIONING 3,1
3D SOLIDS V. 2.2 .
INTEL
MATH CO PROCESSORS
5 MHZ XT
8 MHZ XT .
10 MHZ XT,
6 MHZ 2B5 .
8 MHZ 2BB .
10 MHZ 286
. ..*269.00
16 MHZ 386 .
5409.00
20 MHZ 386
..$479.00
25 MHZ 386 .
. $589.00
386/SX .
$42900
INTELUCOM
LONGLINK
. $129.00
MEGALINK .
$269.00
QUICKLIMK P/S 16K
. $99.00
QUICKLINK S IP 16K
.$99.00
UTTICE INC,
LATTICE C COMPILER V&3
....$215.00
LOTUS
SYMPHONY V.2.0
.$429.00
METRO
$5900
HAL .
. $99,00
AGENDA .
$24900
FREELANCE PLUS
.$329.00
1-Z-3 V.2.01 t
$299.00
MATHSOFT
MATHCAD V 2,0
$199,00
MAXTOR
MFM 120MB 28MS
$1,395.00
MFM-160MB 28MS
$1,56900
ESOE-317MB 16MS
$2,29500
ESDI -600MB 16MS
$4,295.00
MECA
MANAGING YOUR $ V.4.Q
$125.00
MERIDIAN TECH
CARBON COPY PLUS V.5.0
511500
OEJA VIEW
$5900
M1CR0GRAFX
DESIGNER V.1,2
$449.00
DRAW PLUS
.$269.00
IN A VISION
$329.00
WINDOWS DRAW .
. .$199.00
MICRO LYTICS
GOFER .
. $39.00
WORDF1NDER
$39.00
MICRO POLIS
MFM-44MB 28MS . . . .
. . . $522-00
MFM-71MB 28 MS
.$589.00
ESDM42MB . .
$1,295.00
ESOI-338M0
$2,15900
MICROSOFT
WINDOWS 286 .
. 562.00
WINDOWS 386 .
$119.00
WORKS .
...599.00
MlGENT
ABILITY .
. 559.00
POCKET MODEM
5115.00
NANTUCKET
CLIPPER .
. $435.00
NEC
\
P2200 24 PIN
...1359.00
P5200 24 -PIN ....
. . . $529.00
P53QO 24-PIN
$689.00
MULTISPEED EUII
.51,495,00
MULTISPEED HD .
...$2,395,00
MULTISYNC II
$589.00
MULTISYNC GS
$269.00
MULTISYNC PLUS .
. .5949.00
MULTISYNC XL . .
. . .$2,195,00
MONOGRAPH 16Jr W/CARD. .
. . .$1,49900
PANASONIC
1124 24 PIN . .$349.00
1524 24-PIN $559.00
1592 9-PIN $409.00
I092i 9 PIN 5329 00
PARADISE SYS
AUTOSWITCH 480 $179.00
VGA PLUS... ....$279.00
VGA PROFESSIONAL $399.00
PAUL MACE SOFT
MACE UTILITIES V.4.1 $59,00
GRASP V.3,1. $7900
PEACHTREE SOFT
PEACHTREE COMPLETE II . $159.00
PETER NORTON
NORTON CGMMANDOfl . 552.00
NORTON EDITOR . ..$49.00
NO RTON UTIL ITIES V.4 .0 .... $57.00
NORTON UTL ADVANCED . $79.00
PLUS OEVEL
HARDCARD20MB $52900
HARDCARD 40MB . $65900
PRINCETON GRAPH
ULTRASYNC $52900
ROUND CORP.
DPX 2000 DRAFTING PLOTTER $1,989.00
DPX-3300 DRAFTING PLOTTER . .53,450.00
GRX-3O0D DRAFTING PLOTTER .$3,529.00
GRX-400E DRAFTING PLOTTER $4,989.00
DXY-8B5 XY PLOTTER . $695.00
DXY-98A XY PLOTTER $1,229.00
DXY-990 XY PLOTTER . $1,059.00
PLOTTER CABLE (SPECIAL) . $25.00
RYAN Me FA RUN D
XENIX OR UNIX $795.00
IBM PC COBOL . $595.00
85-386 UNIX $1,495.00
SANTA CRUZ
XENIX SYS COMP V2.2 286/AT . .5895.00
XENIX SYS COMP V 2,2 386/AT $99500
SEAGATE
ST-225 20MB 65MS 5229 00
ST 225 20MB 55MS W/CONT $269.00
ST-125 20MB 30M5 $249 00
ST-138 30MB 30MS 5299 00
ST-138 30MB 30MS W/CONT $365.00
ST-251 40MB 40MS $35900
ST251 -1 40MB 28MS . $399.00
ST-4096 80MB 28MS 559900
SOFTWARE PUB
HARVARD GRAPHICS *27900
HARVARD PROJECT MANAGER $369.00
PROFESSIONAL WRITE $11500
PROFESSIONAL FILF .1179.00
STORAGE DIMS
SPEED CACHE . $39.00
SPEEDSTOR UTILITY $49,00
SYMANTEC CDRP.
NOTE-IT PLUS
. . .55600
QU
. . $199.00
READY .
$62.00
SOZ PLUS .
. 5590C
TIME LINE V.30
. $349.00
4 WORD .
$62.00
TOPS-SUN MICRO
TOPS FLASHCARD
. $169.00
TOPS FOR DOS
... $119.00
TOPS NETPRINT .
$119.00
TOSHIBA
PORT PRINT 60 CPS PAR INT . $349.00
NAR DOT MAT 180/60 . $429.00
24-PIN NAR DOT MAT 216/72 . . . .$449.00
24'PIN NAR DOT MAT COLOR . . . .566900
24-PIN WIO DOT MAT 216/72 . . 5699.00
24-PIN W1D DOT MAT 360/120 $1,095.00
512K MS-DOS 2 11 ROM. 64LB $79900
1MB. 384 KB EM$, 10LBS . .$1,459.00
WITH BACKLIT LCD $1,59900
1MB. 348KB EMS. 11L0S, 20MB HOS2.399.OQ
WITH BACKLIT LCD . $2,499.00
1MB, EGA, flL-LCO, 286/12. 2QHD, 3.3
53,399 OO
1MB, VGA, GAS PLAZ, 286/12, H052.895.00
1MB, 4QMR HD. EGA. 286/12 . . $3,795.00
1MB, EGA, GASPLAS, 386/16 . . .$4,795.00
T-5200-40 . $6,195.00
T-5200100 $7,25900
U5 ROBOTICS
US ROBOTICS
E2400 COURIER MODEM $369.00
HST COURIER 9600 BD $669.00
VIDEO 7
FAST-WRITE-VGA $36000
V-RAM VGA . $489.00
VEGA . $179.00
VEGA DELUXE $229 .00
VEGA VGA . 5289.00
WESTERN GIGTL
EltHERCAflD PLUS/IBM PC 521900
WD10O7 A-WAH ESDI HD CONT $229 00
WD10O7 A-WA2 ESDI HD FLOP CT $259.00
WORDPERFECT
WORDPERFECT V.5.Q . $235.00
DATA PERFECT $29900
PLAIN PERFECT $19900
WORD PERFECT LIBRARY $69 00
WORD PERFECT OFFICE . $259.00
XEROX
VENTURA 2.0 $49900
XDR
NFL CHALLENGE $69.00
Z-SDFT
PC PAINTBRUSH+V.1.6 . 579.00
PC PAINTBRUSH +DESIGN SERIES $14000
PUBLISHERS PAINTBRUSH V.L6 $14900
PUBLISHERS TYPE FOUNDRY . . $249.00
ZENITH
SUPEflSPORT $1,649.00
SUPERSPORT M2Q $2,495.00
5UPERSPORI 286 M20 53.29900
SUPERSPORT 286 M40 $3,699.00
TURBOSPDRT 366 M40 . $5,29500
$5500
$27.00
$27.00
$27,00
52700
.5179.00
..$99.00
.$149.00
$199.00
.$159.00
.$229,00
Compare Computers Inc
Orders, Call Toll Free Tech Support & Information
1-800-888-2983 1-612-881-9197
Circle 496 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS: 497 )
FEBRUARY 1989 - BYTE 96MW-7
FAST TRAX
HARDDISK
OPTIMIZER
$49.00
UNDER-PRICED HARD-WARE &
UNDER-PRICED SOFT-WARE
'in BUSINESS FOR OVER TWELVE YEARS
SHARP
PORTABLE COMPUTERS
PC-7100
737 MHZ 8086 PROCESSOR. 5 1/4" 360K FLOPPY DISK DRIVE,
TWENTY MEGABYTE HARD DISK, PARALLEL AND SERIAL PORTS,
320K RAM (EXPANDABLE TO 704K),
ELECTRO-LUMINESCENT BACKLIT SCREEN,
INCLUDES DOS 2.11 & GW-BASIC 2.11
PC-7100 SPECIAL PRICE
$1,099.00
ORIGINAL LIST; $2,995.0#
PC-7202 SPECIAL PRICE
$1,399.00
PC-7202
ORIGINAL LIST: $2,995.00
ItLS^&MHZ 80256 PROCESSOR. DUAL UMB FLOPPY DISK DRIVES,
PARALLEL AND SERIAL PORTS, RGB EXTERNAL MONITOR PORT,
640K RAM (EXPANDABLE TO UMB),
EL ECTRQ-L U M I N ESCEMLJ ACKUTJ5.CREE&
FULL SIZE XT/AT EXPANSION SLOT.
INCLUDES DOS 3.2 & GW-BASIC 3.2
NEC
MULTISPEED -EL
4,77/9.54 MHZ, 640K RAM, DUAL 720K DISK DRIVES,
PARALLEL & SERIAL PORTS, RGB MONITOR PORT,
ELECTRO-LUMINESCENT BACKLIT SCREEN
DOS 3.2, POP-UP SOFTWARE.
NI-CAD BATTERY PAK & A C ADAPTER INCLUDED.
NEC
MULTI-SPEED
DELUXE
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CASES
SPECIAL PRICE
$69.00
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ITT XTRA XP
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80286 PROCESSOR, 4.77/6.0 MHZ, 512K RAM, SERIAL AND
PARALLEL, FLOPPY DRIVE CONTROLLER, KEYBOARD.
ORIGINAL LIST $1,995.00
"%",snPERIP]1ERAlI
CHOICE. WITHOUT
DRIVE^^sl^ [ VIDEO
CHOICE
MONO
MONITOR
& CARD
COLOR
MONITOR
& CARD
NO DRIVES
$499.00
$579.00
$679.00
360K FLOPPY
& 20 MB HD
$799.00
$879.00
$979.00
360 K FLOPPY
& 30 MB HD
$899.00
$979.00
$1079.00
360K FLOPPY
& 40MB HD
$1099.00
$1179.00
$1279.00
TO CHOOSE the CONFIGURATION YOU want, SIMPLY LINE UP YOUR
CHOICE OF DRIVES WITH YOUR CHOICE OF MONITOR.
FACTORY REFVTRH1S1IED MONITORS WITH ONE YEAR WARRANTY
PROCORP
SERIAL MOUSE
W/ DR HALO m
$59.00
CANON
LASER PRINTER
LBP-8A1
« PACE PER MINUTE
CANON CX ENGINE
$899.00
ORIGINAL LIST $3,000.00
MONITOR SPECIALS
up to 82% OFF!!
COLOR
14" COMPOSITE THOMSON-
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5595 $99
.$499 $199
14" RGBI CGA THOMSON™,
MONOCHROME
12" GREEN TTL THOMSON SI99 $69
12" GREEN COMPOSITE
SMITH CORONA _ $134 $49
FULL FACTORY WARRANTY
FACTORY REFURBISHED
TALLGRASS
TAPE BACK-UP SYSTEMS
TG1O20* 20MB EXTERNAL— _ £249.00
TGI 0401 40MB INTERNA! _ _ _ S3M.00
TGI 040* 40MB EXTERNA I _ _ £449.00
TC142S) 20MB HD/
20MB TBU INTERNAL _ __S390.0O
UNDER-WARE
ELECTRONICS
1970 S. WEST ST. #365
WICHITA, KS 67213
800-442-1408
IN KS 316-942-9797
FAX 316-942-9816
QUANTITIES LIMITED, ALL MERCHANDISE AVAE^
ABLE ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE BASIS. ALL
MERCHANDISE GUARANTEED, 15 DAY RETURN PRIVI¬
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96MW-8 BYTE - FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 502 on Reader Service Card
Short Takes
BYTE editors ' hands-on v/ews of new products
MegaMate
MKS Make, Lex, and Yace
Wordbench
DataSentry
Language Systems
FORTRAN
Sourcer
There’s no escaping the
world of multiple floppy
disk formats, especially if you
get your disks from different
sources or switch back and
forth between a laptop com¬
puter and an older (pre-PS/2)
desktop computer. If you need
to work with 3 Vi -inch floppy
disks but have only a 5 XA -inch
floppy disk drive in your main
computer, the MegaMate
3^-inch external drive is a
solution in the true sense of the
word. And it’s about as easy a
solution as you can get, short
of buying a new system with a
3!^-inch drive built in ,
MegaMate, which is a sleek
little disk drive designed by
someone who realizes the
value of desktop real estate,
works with any IBM PC, XT,
AT, or compatible that can
s pare a hal f-size slot , Ho ok i ng
it up is a snap. After checking
the jumper blocks to make
sure they’re set correctly (the
unit J received came properly
positioned), you just slip the
MegaMate card into the ex¬
pansion slot, screw it down,
and plug the drive into the
port. Installing the software,
on either a hard disk or a sys¬
tem disk, is equally simple.
MegaMate functions just
like a native drive in that you
can access it from applications
and use DOS utilities such as
COPY, DIR, CHKDSK, and
CD, FORMAT, DISKCOPY,
and DISKCOMP will work
only with DOS 3.3 or higher,
but the MegaMate software
has its own formatting com¬
mand that works with DOS
2,0 and higher.
The drive can initialize 3 Vi-
inch disks in 72QK>byte and
1. 44-megabyte formats (the
latter being the default). The
unit can detect what kind of
disk it’s looking at, so you
have to specify only density
when you’re initializing a
floppy disk. Micro Solutions
said it will soon have a utility
program that will let you for¬
mat disks as a background
task, but that update wasn’t
Unix tools for MS-DOS
users? Who wants them!
Wak, there must be something
valuable here, or Mortice
Kern Systems would have been
out of business years ago when
it started shipping packages of
classic Unix tools that are
written and compiled for MS-
DOS,
The company now has two
new programs. MKS Make is
ready when we went to press.
ITve been using MegaMate
as my regular floppy disk
drive for several weeks now,
and I haven’t seen any prob¬
lems in terms of operation or
reliability. The external unit
has blended right in with the
AT clone I use at work, doing
none of the things that some¬
times happen when you add a
piece of hardware. The only
weird thing I’ve seen is found
in the boot-up screen message
that flashes Mega Mate’s des¬
ignation. The message, a two-
liner, 1 think, says that the
drive is available as drive D,
but the thing whizzes by so
quickly, and amidst a whole
screen full of text, that I had to
call it up 20 times before 1
traditionally used for defining
the dependencies of program
source code files so that ap¬
propriate recompilation and
linking can take place when
one or more modules or librar¬
ies have been modified. How¬
ever, its use is not limited to
programming. Many docu¬
ments have dependencies on
other documents. If, for ex¬
ample, parts of accounting
cou ld see the message that said
my MegaMate was drive D.
At S349 for drive, card, and
cable, MegaMate is priced
comparably with other exter¬
nal drives* (With higher-ca¬
pacity floppy disk drives com¬
ing soon, like Konica’s 10-
megabyte unit, I wouldn’t
want to invest much more than
that in an extra disk device*)
If you’ve got to read from or
write to 3l/a-inch disks and
can’t afford a more modern
computer with built-in drives
for the smaller floppy disks,
the MegaMate is worth the
money. Sure beats having to
bother a coworker with a 3 'Cl¬
inch floppy diskdrive.
—D. Barker
THE TACTS
MegaMate
§349
Requirements:
IBM PC, XT, AT, or
compatible with at least
128K bytes of RAM,
DOS 2,0 or higher,
and a half- size slot.
Micro Solutions, Inc*
132 West Lincoln Hwy.
De Kalb, IL 601 15
(815)756-3421
Inquiry 1035.
sheets are included in other
documents, changes in the ac¬
counting requires reformat¬
ting the documents. This pro¬
cess is automated through the
use of MKS Make. Containing
Mortice Ker n H s RCS (Rev i sion
Control System, similar to
Unix sees), MKS Make gives
the same sturdy programming
and documentation manage-
cantinued
Unix Tools for DOS
FEBRUARY 1989 * B Y T E 97
SHORT TAKES
ment to MS-DOS users that
Unix developers have been
boasting about for nearly two
decades. It can use both Unix
and Microsoft control defini¬
tions.
MKS Make supports T urbo
C , Microsoft C , WATCOM C ,
and other compilers T I ibraries ,
and linkers. It works with the
MKS Toolkit Korn Shell, as
well as with standard DOS
COMMAND . COM *
The second new program is
MKS Lex and Yacc (for Ltyet
another compiler compiler”).
Lex and Yacc are tools used
specifically for software de¬
velopment. Lexical analysis is
the set of ope rat ions that deter¬
mines the nature of input in an
application program. For ex¬
ample, a lexical analyzer de¬
termines whether you are
inputting text, a value, a func¬
tion, a macro, or a command
when you run a spreadsheet
program. Lex is a program to
generate lexical analyzers.
Most lexical-analyzer genera¬
tors do not create fast or com¬
pact program modules. In¬
stead, they are used just for
prototyping or generating
stand-alone data translation
systems.
Yacc has been used for gen¬
erating entire application pro¬
grams as well as compilers.
There are many applications
for rule-based systems other
than compilers. When an ap-
p 1 icat ion s de ve lop e r sp e c i f ies
a set of rules and machine
slates and/or operations, Yacc
can take the specifications and
generate the source code for a
program or module that fol¬
lows these definitions,
MKS Lex and Yacc sup¬
ports the following compilers:
Turbo C, Microsoft C, WAT¬
COM C, and others. It is not
copy- protec ted, and there are
no royalties or run-time fees.
Mortice Kern has developed
an entire suite of more than
130 programs (MKS Toolkit,
$199) that perform the same
functions as their equivalents
in Unix. 1 have been using this
package for years. None of the
MKS programs contain any
AT&T code, but they reli¬
giously follow the System V.3
parameters and operations.
Other products from the
company include MKS SQPS
(SoftQuad Publishing Sys-
tern), compatible with AT&T
Documenters Work Bench,
$495; drivers for Hewlett-
Packard LaserJet printers and
PostScript devices, $200;
MKS Vi ($149), a total imple¬
mentation of the classic Unix
screen editor; and MKS AWK
($99), which contains all the
features of the new version of
the report-generation lan¬
guage from the gurus of Bell
Labs, The MKS Toolkit in¬
cludes everything but SQPS,
Make, Lex, and Yacc,
So who uses Unix tools in
MS-DOS? I suspect that 50
percent are users with Unix
experience who need to work
in the MS-DOS world, and the
other 50 percent are MS-DOS
users wanting to learn more
about Unix.
— Ben Smith
Wordbench:
Tools Designed with Writers in Mind
Word processors for writ¬
ers of prose typically
provide an outliner, a spelling
checker, and a thesaurus. Ad¬
dison- Wesley's Wordbench
program does all that and
more. There's a note-taker
that behaves like an electronic
stack of 3 -by -5 index cards; a
reference tool that helps you
collect and arrange biblio¬
graphic citations; a viewer that
you can use to refer to your out¬
line, notes, and citations while
working on a document; and
even a tool called the brain-
stormer, which helps you get
past a writer's block.
The word processor itself is
solid but unspectacular. It
supports many of the usual
text- editing operations, para¬
graph formats, and modes of
emphasis. The size of your
document is limited by avail¬
able RAM, though, and some
conveniences— like a single¬
key function to delete a line-
are missing. If you’re already
committed to a word proces¬
sor, it's unlikely you’ll want
to switch to this one.
But the word processor does
its job, and the environment it
works within has some unique
features. One particularly
handy feature is the interac¬
tion between the note- taker
and the outJiner. The problem
with typical outfitters is that
you can attach text only to out¬
line items; that compels you to
create a skeleton to which you
THE FACTS
MKS Make
$149
Requirements;
DOS 2,0 or higher
and 256K bytes of RAM;
a hard disk drive is
recommended.
MKS Lex and Yacc
$249
Requirements:
DOS 2.0 or higher
and 256K bytes of RAM;
a hard disk drive is
recommended.
Mortice Kern Systems,
Inc.
35 King St. N
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada N2J 2W9
(519) 884-2251
Inquiry 1036,
can then add meat.
Wordbench recognizes that
sometimes the meat comes
first. Thus, you can use the
note-taker to capture thoughts
that don't yet fit into your out-
iine. The outline and notes
continued
THE FACTS
Wordbench
$189
Requirements :
IBM PC, XT, AT, or
compatible with 256K
bytes of RAM and DOS
2.0 or higher,
Addison- Wesley
Publishing Co., Inc.
Jacob Way
Reading, MA 01867
(617) 944-3700
Inquiry 1037.
98 BYTE * FEBRUARY 1989
CrossCodeC
Microprocessor Family
Embedded systems designers have already used CrossCode C in over 291 different applications.
How to choose a 68000 C compiler
for your ROMable code development
These twelve important CrossCode C features could
make the difference between success and failure
It’s hard to know ahead of time what
features you’ll be needing in a
68000 C compiler. But if you’re using
CrossCode C you won’t need to think
ahead, because CrossCode C is already
equipped with these twelve important
features for your ROMable code devel¬
opment;
1* A 100% ROMable Compiler:
CrossCode C splits its output into five
memory sections for easy placement into
ROM or RAM at link time.
2. Integrated C and Assembler: You
can write your code in any combination of
C and assembly language.
X Readable Assembly Language
Output: The compiler generates assem¬
bly language code with your C language
source code embedded as comments, so
you can see each statement’s compiled
output.
4. Optimized Code: CrossCode C uses
minimum required precision when eval¬
uating expressions. It also "folds” con¬
stants at compilation time, converts
multiplications to shifts when possible,
and eliminates superfluous branches.
5, Custom Optimization: You can op¬
timize compiler output for your applica¬
tion because you control the sizes of C
types, including pointers, floats, and all
integral types.
6- Register Optimization; Ten regis¬
ters are reserved for your register vari¬
ables, and there’s an option to automati¬
cally declare all stack variables as
register , so you can instantly optimize
programs that were written without
registers in mind.
7. C Library Source: An extensive C
library containing over 47 C functions is
provided in source form.
8. No Limitations: Np matterhow large
your program is, CrossCode C will com¬
pile it. There are no limits on the number
of symbols in your program, the size of
your input file, or the size of a C function.
9. 68020 Support: If you’re using the
68020, CrossCode C will use its extra in¬
structions and addressing modes,
10. Floating Point Support: If you’re
using the 68881, the compiler performs
floating point operations through the
coprocessor, and floating point register
variables are stored in 68881 registers.
11. Position Independence: Both posi¬
tion independent code and data can be
generated if needed.
12. ANSI Standards: CrossCode C
tracks the ANSI C standard, so your code
will always be standard, too.
There’s More
CrossCode C comes with an assembler,
a linker, and a tool to help you prepare
your object code for transmission to
PROM programmers and emulators. And
there’s another special tool that gives you
symbolic debugging support by helping
you to prepare symbol tables for virtually
all types of emulators.
CrossCode C is available under MS-
DOS forjust$1595, and it runs on all IBM
PCs and compatibles (640K memory and
hard disk are required). Also available
under UNIX & XENIX.
CALL TODAY for more information:
1-800-448-7733
(ask for extension 2001)
Outside the United States, please dial
PHONE: 1-312-971-8170
FAX: 1-312-971-8513
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS, INC.
DEPARTMENT 2t
4248 BELLE AIRE LANE
i DOWNERS GROVE, ILLINOIS 60515 USA
CrossCode™ is u l rack mark of SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
SYSTEMS. INC. MS DOS® is j registered iradcmurk of
Mkranoft. UNIX® h, j registered irudemurk of AT&T, XENTX®
is a registered iradcmarfc of Miurnscifi,
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 99
SHORT TAKES
evolve separately; as the struc¬
ture clarifies, you link notes to
outline headers. When you're
ready to write a first draft, you
merge the outline and notes to¬
gether into a document.
The brainstormer provides
a set of tools that people who
teach writing will find both
amusing and useful. Tech¬
niques include free writing,
nutshelling, and goal setting.
Free writing means that you
set a timed interval— say, 2
minutes— then write furiously
until the clock runs out. The
program won't let you back up
or edit, and if you pause for
longer than a few seconds, it
tells you to keep writing. Nut¬
shell ing encourages you to
write a concise summary of
your topic, and goal setting
helps you define your audi¬
ence and point of view.
Wordbench isn't the fanci¬
est word processor around, but
its creators have thought hard
about the process of writing
and have built tools that flexi¬
bly support that process. It's a
very friendly package that
may well appeal both to pro¬
fessional writers who are un¬
familiar with computers and
to educators who are looking
for software that can really
help their students learn how
to write.
^Jon Udell
Put a Positive Lock on Your Data
It's 2:00 a.m.; da you know
where your data is? There’s
currently a great deal of con¬
cern about computer security.
Just listen to the news. And
you don't have to work for the
government to be anxious
yourself.
Nearly every business has
computerized information
that shouldn't go beyond its
four walls. It’s all too easy for
someone to walk in, copy
some files to a floppy disk,
and walk away with a com¬
pany's secrets.
Data-security packages,
both software and hardware,
aren't new. But there's a prob¬
lem; The most effective ones
are expensive and inconve¬
nient to use; the inexpensive
ones are marginally useful at
best. But the aptly named
DataSentry from Rainbow
Technologies has changed all
that. It's economical, it's easy
to use, and it provides virtu¬
ally foolproof security,
DataSentry is a variation of
those ” hardware keys” that
are often used as copy-protec¬
tion devices for custom soft¬
ware or other expensive pack¬
ages, Indeed, Rainbow Tech¬
nologies is a leading supplier
of the keys.
The 2 -inch long, 1,5 -ounce
DataSentry plugs into the
printer port of your IBM PC or
compatible, and it lets you add
copy protection to individual
files or even to entire directo¬
ries. Rainbow Technologies
claims that DataSentry does
not interfere with the opera¬
tion of your printer, which
plugs into the other end of
DataSentry. And I found that
to be true.
Since I don't have any com¬
pany secrets on my computer,
I decided to protect the next
best thing; my resume. After!
plugged DataSentry into my
system’s parallel port, all I
had to do to complete the pro¬
cess was to copy a couple of
utilities to my disk and type
SEAL, followed by the file¬
name of my resume.
DataSentry then encrypted
my file, producing a new file
that was also compressed to
nearly half its original size.
The utility also erases the
original file. To make things
even more secure, it goes be¬
yond the normal MS-DOS
DELETE (which leaves the
data on the disk) by completely
replacing the original data
with nonsense characters.
When 1 removed Data¬
Sentry and attempted to edit
the file, al 31 had was a screen
DataSentry
$125
Requirements.
IBM PC, XT, AT,
PS/2, or compatible with
a standard parallel
printer port and DOS 2.0
or higher.
Rainbow^ Technologies *
Inc.
1 801 DA Mitchells
Irvine, CA 92714
(714) 261-0228
Inquiry 1038.
full of incomprehensible gib¬
berish. To get my resume
back, I had to reinsert Data¬
Sentry and type OPEN and the
filename. And my file came
back.
You can even add a pass¬
word when you seal a file. But
without DataSentry in the par¬
allel port, there's virtually no
way to access the file unless
you have a degree in cryptog¬
raphy and access to a super¬
computer.
The basic DataSentry uses
what Rainbow Technologies
calls a “proprietary algo¬
rithm” to encrypt your data.
There 1 s also a version that uses
the government's highly se¬
cure Data Encryption Stan¬
dard, but it can 't be sold or ex¬
ported beyond the U.S.
DataSentry is not com¬
pletely transparent. You have
to remember to reseal your
files after you’re done work¬
ing with them. And if you take
DataSentry home with you at
night and forget it the next
morning, you’re up the creek.
Besides the individual
DataSentry keys, Rainbow
Technologies also offers a
multilevel system, so a depart¬
ment manager can have a key
that will open the files of all
employees. And you can even
send encrypted files over tele¬
phone lines by purchasing
keys with identical internal
codes for use on both sides of
the line.
If you lie awake nights wor¬
rying about the safety of your
data, DataSentry will lei you
get some rest, especially if you
put it under your pillow.
—Stan Miastkowski
continued
101) BYTE - FEBRUARY 1989
Tlic joumc\,
to discovert' can
■ . - - J
sometimes be a
long and arduous
one.
Especially
when it comes to
writing database applications.
And especially when you're not
a programmer
All of which is precisely why we
built dBASE IV" with an innovative
new feature we call the Control Center.
The Control Center is a logical,
intuitive window from which you per¬
form all your key database operations.
A constant frame of reference, if you
will, for harnessing all of dBASE I Vs
formidable power.
Through the Control Center, you
get simple and understandable access to
every one of dBASE I V’s modules and
functions. Like the powerful Report
Writer. The Applications Generator
And much, much more. So that the
time it takes to develop your applica¬
tions can be drastically reduced.
You sec, at AshtonTate we think
that people tend to be more successful
when they’re able to see the opportunities
for discovery right in front of them.
Want ro sec for yourself? Just visit
your local authorized AshtonTate
dealer for a demonstration, or call
800-437-4329' ext 2934 for derails
on videotapes, demo disks, upgrades,
and more.
.A Ashton -Tate5
INTRODUCING dBASE IV
Circle 16 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS: 17)
“It’s a whole lot easier
when you can see
what you’re doing?7
In Colorado call (303) 799-4900. Trademark/owner: dBASE IV,
AshtonTate, and AshtonTate Logo/Ashton -Tate Corporation.
(Ci 1989 AshtonTate Corporation. AH rights reserved.
SHORT TAKES
GET SUPERSOFT’s
Service Diagnostics
Ail the software, alignment diskettes , parallel/serial wrap-around
plugs, ROM POSTs and extensive, professional documentation to
provide the most comprehensive testing available for IBM PCs,
XTs,ATs and a// compatibles under DOS or Stand Alone. No other
diagnostics offers such in-depth testing on as many different types of
equipment by isolating problems to the board and chip level.
NEW: SuperSoft s ROM POST performs the most advanced
Power-on-Self-Test available for system boards that are compatible
with the IBM ROM BIOS, It works even in circumstances when the
Service Diagnostics diskette cannot be loaded,
NEW: 386 diagnostics for hybrids and PS/2s!
For over nine years, major manufacturers have been relying on
SuperSoffs diagnostics software to help them and their customers
repair microcomputers. End users have been relying on SuperS of t’s
Diagnostics II for the most thorough hardware error isolation
available. Now versions of Service Diagnostics are available to save
everyone (including every serious repair technician) time, money,
and headaches in fixing their computers, even non- IBM equipment.
All C PUs & N u meric C o- processo rs A 1 1 Colo r G raph ics & M onochrome
System Expansion & Ext e nd e d M em ory M onitors
Floppy, Fixed & Non-standard Disk Drives Parallel & Serial Ports
Standard & Non-standard Printers Mono, CG A, Hercules & EGA
System Board: DMA, Timers, Interrupt, Adapters
Rea I -ti me Clock & CMOS co nfig .RAM Ail Keyboards & the 8042 Co nt roller
Join the ranks of XEROX, NCR, CDC, SONY, PRIME, ..who have
bundled SuperSofts diagnostics with their microcomputers at no risk
because of our 30 day money back guarantee.
Service Diagnoses for PC, PC/XT, and compatibles only . . $169
Alignment Diskette for PC, PC/XT and compatibles (4B tpi drives) . $ 50
Wrap-around Plug tor PC, PC/XT and compatibles (parallel and serial), ,$ 30
Service Diagnostics for AT and compatibles only . Si 69
Alignment Diskette for AT and compatibles (96 tpi drives) . S SO
Wrap-around Plug for AT (serial) . S 15
ROM POST for PC, PC/XT and compatibles only . . $245
ROM POST for AT and compatibles only . . . ,$245
Service Diagnostics: The KIT (Includes all of the above— save $502) . $495
Service Diagnostics for 396 or V2, V30, or Harris, ale. (please specify). . $195
Diagnostics II is iho soluilon to the service problems of users of all
CP/M-80, CP/M-B6 and MS-DOS computers . . £125
ROM POST for PS/2 and compatibles only . $245
Alignment Diskette for PS/2 and compatibles (3-5 inch) . $ 50
To order, call 800-678-3600 or 408-745-0234
FAX 408-745-0231, or write SuperSoft.
yotvj.
Supers ft
FIRST IN SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY P0. Bw StlSZft San Jose, CA 35161-1326 (406) 7450234 Tgle* 270065
SUPEHSGFT rs a registered irademark ol SuperSoft. Inc.; CDC of Control D«sia Corp.; IBM PC, AT & XT ol
International Business Machines Carp.; MS-DOS of Microsoft Ccrp.; NEC ol NEC rnlormaiten Systems. Inc..
PRIME oF PRIME INC.; Sony ol Sony Corp.
A FORTRAN
for the Mac Forces
Language Systems FOR¬
TRAN is a compiler that
runs under the Macintosh Pro¬
grammers' Workshop, You
can purchase the MPW Unix-
like shell from Language Sys¬
tems configured to run the
compiler, or you can use the
MPW version from Apple
with the Install program that is
included with the FORTRAN
compiler.
The compiler produces ob¬
ject code that is linked using
MPW's linker, whieh can also
link resources created by the
Rez tool. This method lets the
programmer use resources
from within the program that
have been previously created
and debugged, resulting in
significant savings in time and
development effort.
Using FORTRAN again
was like going to a 20-year
high school reunion. We
hadn't been near it for a while,
and we were curious to see
how time had changed it. The
compiler supports the ANSI
77 syntax, and it has exten¬
sions to it designed for the
Mac. One of the most obvious
is that there can be 3 1 signifi¬
cant characters in a name, as
opposed to the ANSI 77 allow¬
ance of 6 characters. The
ANSI 77 version allows only
THE FACTS
Language Systems
FORTRAN
$295; $200 without
MPW
Requirements:
Macintosh Plus, SE, or II
with 1 megabyte of RAM
and a hard disk drive with
at least 5 megabytes of free
space.
Language Systems, Inc.
441 Carlisle Dr.
Herndon, VA 22070
(703) 478-0181
Inquiry 1039,
72 characters per source code
line (from the days when cards
were 80 columns), but the
compiler can take up to 255
characters per line (which
makes sense for the Mac),
One of the annoying things
about FORTRAN— also an¬
noying in this implementa¬
tion— is the assumption of a
standard I/O stream. That is,
the output of the program goes
to a fixed window that has
basic menus attached to it and
a go Away box. The program¬
mer can't change the output
window without extra work
with MPW itself (attaching
extra menus, for example). If
output from the program ex¬
ceeds 1000 lines into the win¬
dow, it is automatically saved
into a labeled file.
Other supported I/O units
include the keyboard and the
printer. Thus, mouse move¬
ment can't be used in a
program without the program¬
mer doing the Toolbox calls
and the necessary overhead in
the program. Whether or not
this is significant for the aver¬
age FORTRAN program is
debatable. But it does reduce
the ilMacishness" of the
resulting program without
extra work.
You can easily implement
the structures necessary to use
Macintosh formatted records
and communicate with rou¬
tines written in other lan¬
guages, like Pascal.
The compiler seems to be
designed to make the porting
of previously written FOR¬
TRAN programs easy. This is
commendable, especially for
beginning programmers using
the language from a standard
educational text. But the pro¬
grammer should not expect
the language to add most of the
standard Mac features auto¬
matically. It seems a way to
make the existing body of
FORTRAN code usable on a
Mac, and it succeeds.
— D. Barker and Larry Loeb
continued
102 B Y T E - FEBRUARY 1989 Circle 263 on Reader Service Card
A funny thing
happens when you
go around solving
other people’s data¬
base problems.
People tend to
’ think of you as
somebody you’re not.
But that’s all right. Because with
all due respect to those who develop
applications professionally, the fact is
that more and more everyday people
arc being encouraged to turn out more
and more everyday programs.
Of course, it helps if they have a
tool like dBASE IV’s Applications
Generator.
The dBASE I V'“ Applications
Generator does pretty much what its
name implies: it writes the necessary
code to pull together all the elements
of your application. So you can con¬
centrate more on what you want to
accomplish, and less on what you have
to do to get there.
The Applications Generator is
fully integrated with dBASE IV’s new
Control Center, too. So you get a sim¬
ple, understandable way to access all
this power. Be careful, though— this
combination just might turn you into
a programmer.
Which actually may not be so
strange after all.
Want to see what it feels like? Just
visit your local authorized AshtonTate
dealer for a demonstration, or call
800-437-4329* ext. 2934 for details on
videotapes, demo disks, upgrades, and
more.
.A Ashton -Tate®
INTRODUCING dBASE IV
Circle IS on Reader Service Card
(DEALERS: 19)
•In Colorado call (303) 799-4900. Trademark/owner: dBASE IV.
Ashton-lfete, and AshtonTate Logo/AshtonTate Corporation
£>1989 AshtonTate Corporation, All rights reserved.
“It’s kind of
really- all of a
think Em a
programmer:
Circle 147 on Reader Service Card
- Introducing the —
Smallest 80386 based
PC Compatible Single
Board Computer
Only 4" x 6"
Quark/PC® II
• VGA® VideafColor LCD Controller
• SCSI Hard Disk Control
• Up to 4 Mbytes Memory and more
To order or enquire call us today.
Megatel Computer Corporation
(416) 745-7214 FAX (416) 745-8792
174 Turbine Drive Weston. Ontario M91 2S2
Distributors
Germany - V& C Computers (06071) 25666 FAX (06071)5863
Italy & Southern Europe - NCS Italia (0331) 256-524 FAX
(0331) 256-018 U.K. - Densitron (0959) 76331 FAX (0959) 7107
Australia — ASP Microcomputers (03) 500-0628 FAX (03)
500-9461 Denmark — Ingenlorf frmaet (452) 440488 FAX (452)
440715 Finland - Dlgipoinl (3580) 757 1711 FAX (3580)
757 0844 Norway - AD Elektronlkk (02) 141290
Quark ii a reglsl&redUS irodemorkof F.&K . MFG Co Ltd. USA li a registered trademark tflBMOnp.
- megatel -
Protects /
while you/ //
type! ^
* Remains in Place while you use your computer.
* Avoids Costly Repairs* Protects delicate electronics
from dust, spills, smoke, ashes, staples.
* Soft* Flexible* retains normal keyboard feel.
* Washable. Durable High-Tech Polymer lasts years.
* Hundreds of Models. SafeSkfn Is available for most
PCs, laptops, workstations and clone keyboards.
* Office ■ Home * Factory * Classroom * Laboratory
List Price 529.95. Please call or write for free color
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Keyboard Protector
Merritt Computer Products, lnc./456l S. Westmoreland
Dallas, Texas 7523 7/(21 4) 339-0753 • Fax (214) 339-1313
In Canada call t -800-663-1 061
SHORT TAKES
Sourcer Magic Disassembles
Machine Code
Assembly language pro¬
grammers may think they
have to work with stone-age
computing tools, but Sourcer
is a machine code disas¬
sembler with the interface of
the best consumer-oriented
programs and much of the
built-in intelligence of an ex¬
pert system,
A disassembler program re-
verse-engineers executable
programs, producing assem¬
bly language listings or source
code. You use it to study how
programs work, to modify
them, or to check them for vi¬
ruses, improperly appropri¬
ated code, and inappropriate
operations. Typically, the
only control you have over a
dissassembler are the com¬
mand-line options.
Sourcer has changed that; it
has an opt ions- setting screen
that lets you select formats,
comment types, analysis
methods, and more than a
dozen other options. The
screen then displays an exam¬
ple of your selections as you
make them. It even has a help
screen! (This may not be ex¬
traordinary to the average
user, but it is remarkable for
an assembly language pro¬
gramming took) Having made
your choices, you press G (for
“Go”), and Sourcer displays
the progress of the disassem¬
bly process in a graph at the
bottom of your screen.
The input to Sourcer can be
.EXE, .COM, ,QBJS or BIN
multsegment files (up to 250
segments); device drivers;
program overlays; system files
(.SYS); or any RAM or ROM
address in the first 1 -megabyte
area. Sourcer will disassemble
code from the 8088/8086.
80186/80188, V20/V3Q,
80286 (privileged and real
modes), 8087, and 80287 pro¬
cessors to the appropriate in¬
struction sets.
Sourcer uses a multiple
pass-data analysis/code-sim¬
ulation sequence to separate
code from data, analyze the
code for BIOS calls, and ana¬
lyze the data for strings. The
output from Sourcer consists
of source code or listing files.
Because of the length of com¬
ments, you should use a 132-
character printer to list the
output files.
Disassembly of a 13K-byte
DOS utility produced a 13GK-
byte .ASM file in 4 minutes
(on a 10-MHz 80286 PC-DOS
machine). An attempt to dis¬
assemble an EGA demon stra-
tion program produced:
“WARNING; Packed file,
conversion qua l ity low 7T But it
still managed to produce a us¬
able listing, although it obvi¬
ously had problems following
the flow of the program,
Sourcer comes with a well-
written 76-page manual that
explains operation and warn¬
ing/error messages. You can
also buy an optional BIOS pre¬
processor,
— Ben Smith ■
Sourcer
S99.95; with optional
BIOS preprocessor,
$139.95
Requirements:
IBM PC or compatible
with 512K bytes of RAM
and DOS 2.0 or higher;
supports CGA, EGA,
VGA, MDAS and
Hercules adapters.
V Communications
3031 Tisch Way
Suite 905
San Jose, CA 95128
(408) 296-4224
Inquiry 1050*
104 BYT E - FEBRUARY 1989 Circle 148 on Reader Service Card
id ft*
A/jHKMtt* It’s always
dE&SElV . \ c
the raw speed or an
application that
seems to catch one’s
attention. But when
vou think about it,
speed alone doesn’t
always determine the amount of useful
work you can produce.
That’s why in dBASE IV,“we
added more than just a blazingly fast
.EXE compiler. We added a total of
310 new or enhanced commands and
functions that help you complete your
applications in less time than you ever
thought possible.
And without your having to
become a full-fledged programmer to
doit.
Of course, the compiler by itself
lets you run applications significantly
faster than is possible with dBASE III
PLUS: But you’ll also find yourself
working much more efficiently through
dBASE IV’s intuitive new Control
Center. As well as by using its Applica¬
tions Generator. Or the Report Writer.
The Forms Generator. And much mote.
After all, when it comes to devel¬
oping dBASE IV applications more
quickly, there’s not just one way to
doit.
There is one way to find out more,
though. Just visit your local authorized
Ashton-Tate dealer for a demonstra¬
tion, or call 800-437-4329* ext. 2934
for details on videotapes, demo disks,
upgrades, a_nd more.
A Ashton ■Tate'’
INTRODUCING dBASE IV
Circle 20 on Reader Service Card
(DEALERS: 21)
“Have you noticed that
program speed is not the
only reason you set
things done faster?”
T5200: 20MHz 386 processor, 2 interna} IBM^campatibk
expansion slots , VGA gas plasma display with VGA
monitor port, 40MB or 100MB hard disk 2MB RAM
standard expandable to SMB, 144MB 3W diskette drive.
SALES ANALYSIS
W-. 1 -OTAl SALES 3Y CDUK'PY H
At Toshiba, we’re not only committed to
making computers more portable, but also
to making portables more powerful.
Which is why in our effort to constantly
improve and refine our machines, we’ve
added three new computers to what is
already the most complete family of truly
portables available.
Each designed to be powerful enough
to take on the increasingly complex tasks
that face today’s sophisticated PC users.
First, theT1600 which weighs under
12 pounds and which is the fastest battery-
powered computer we’ve ever made.
Second, theT3100e, the successor to
our most popular machine— the T3100/20.
We’ve made it nearly two pounds lighter and
a lot faster— we’ve even
added expansion capa¬
bilities. About the only
thing we didn’t add was
more size.
T 1600: Battery-powered 286/ 12MHz, l
coprocessor socket ( 20MB hard disk at
27msec, 1.44MB diskette drive,
I MB RAM expandable to 5MBr detach¬
able backlit EGA compatible LCDr .
removable rechargeable battery pack . 1 f~ 7
Toshiba is the world leader in truly portable PCs and manufactures a complete line of high quality dot-matrix and laser printers. For more information call 1-800457-7777 All Toshiba PCs
are backed by the Exceptional Care program (nocost enrollment required! IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Models T 1600 and T520G have rot
been approved by the Federal Communications Commission. These devices are not, and may not be; offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased until the approval of FCC has been obtained.
106 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
And finally; the T5200, which has enough
power to replace virtually any desktop PC.
But we haven’t just concentrated on
power and portability We’ve also constantly
looked for ways to make our machines more
durable, more reliable, and easier to use-
down to the 800 number our customers can
call for help with any technical question that
might come up.
We figure that’s what our users demand.
And it’s by anticipating the growing
needs of our users that we have continually
found ways to make our machines weigh
less and do more. So you can work wher¬
ever you want and however you want.
All of which might make it tempting
for some people to
abandon their desktop
for the convenience of
portability Go ahead.
We’ve given you
the power to do it.
T3100e : 12MHz 286 with 80287 co-
processor socket, interna! half-length
IBM slot, 20MB hard disk with 2/
msec access , IMB RAM expandable
to 5MB, gas plasma display, 14 4MB
3W* diskette drive .
Circle 232 on Reader Service Card
(DEALERS: 233)
In Touch with Tomorrow
TOSHIBA
Toshiba America Inc.. Infnnnnlinn Sysleins Division
FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 107
YES!
I
ALL YOUR
YOU CAN
NOW BURN ALL
YOUR COMPUTER
BOOKS AND
STILL BE AN ACE
PROGRAMMER!
GEYSER "ON SCREEN REFERENCE BOOKS" ARE
EITHER MEMORY RESIDENT OR STAND ALONE
PROGRAMS. THEY POP UP INSTANTLY AND PUT
ALL THE INFORMATION YOU NEED RIGHT AT YOUR
FINGERTIPS!
WITH GEYSER "ON SCREEN REFERENCE BOOKS"
YOU CAN NOW:
-ASK ANY QUESTION IN PLAIN ENGLISH USING
ITS UNIQUE "PERSONAL WORO SEARCH" QUERY
SYSTEM.
-GET THE EXACT SYNTAX AND USAGE OF ANY
COMMAND BY USING THE "COMMAND
REMINDER" WINDOW.
-SCAN THE ONSCREEN BOOK BY TOPIC USING
THE OVERVIEW FEATURE.
THE GEYSER COLLECTION INCLUDES THE
FOLLOWING TITLES:
NOW AVAILABLE
DOS
TURBO C
TURBO PASCAL
MS FORTRAN
dBASE III PLUS
CLIPPER
WORDPERFECT
WORDSTAR
XY WRITE III PLUS
LOTUS 1.2.3.
AVAILABLE END OF MARCH 89
PROLOG
REFLEX
SPFfPC
SYMPHONY
TURBO BASIC
DATAEASE
PFSfPftOF. WHITE
QUATTRD
TURBO ASSEMBLER dBASE IV
MS WORD
SUPERCALC
DISPLAYWRITE
AVAILABLE ENO OF APRIL B9
XENIX FOXBASE WORDSTAR 2000 PLUS EXCEL
ADA R:BASE MULTIMATE MULTIPLAN
PARADOX FRAMEWORK
NO MORE ENDLESS PAGES FLIPPING. each GEYSER on-screen reference book is available on diskette for
ONLY $49.91.
NO MORE WASTED TIME SEARCHING.
NO MORE TRAIN OFTHOUBHT DERAILMENT.
$49.« WILL BUY YOU
FREEDOM FROM BULKY MANUALS.
ORDERS: 1800-3617273
_ ▲
GEYSER ALSO HAS A CORPORATE CUSTOMIZATION SERVICE DIVISION THAT
MAKES DUR LEADING EDGE TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE FOR CUSTOMER SALES
SUPPORT OR TRAINING. THIS DIVISION OF GEYSER CAN APPLY OUR
UNEQUALLED ON-SCREEN HELP TO ANY KIND OF BOOKS, MANUALS
CATALOGUES, FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CALL: |5H| 842 5719.
Circle 97 on Reader Service Card
j
GEYSER INFORMATICS INC,
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FIRST IMPRESSIONS ■ Sian Miastkowski and Nick Baran
Borland’s extensive
upgrade of Paradox makes
it a major contender
for the number-one
DBMS spot
What might be termed “the
battle of the databases” has
rapidly become a battle of
major software companies.
Though a flock of smalLto-medium
companies sells database managers, the
major activity in "serious” relational
database managers is pretty much con¬
fined to large companies with the com¬
mitment (read “bucks”) to devote the
time and resources needed to effectively
develop these complex applications.
Ashton-Tate's dBASE, long consid¬
ered the state of the art in database man¬
agers, is now in version I V* A measure of
its acceptance is the flock of act-alike
products nipping at its heels. In fact, as
this was being written, Ashton-Tate filed
a lawsuit against Fox Software, charging
that its Fox BASE package violates the
“look and feel" of dBASE.
But nobody can accuse Borland Inter¬
national's Paradox of being a dBASE
done. From a user -interface and design-
philosophy standpoint, it's a unique ani¬
mal; and that's where its power and ver¬
satility lie. Introduced in 1985, Paradox
quickly became a serious contender in
the high-end database manager market,
especially after Borland acquired the
package's original developer (Ansa Soft¬
ware). Borland brought considerable
marketing clout to the equation, and with
the release of version 3, the Paradox
series has reached a point where it has the
potential of overtaking dBASE IV.
Paradox 3 is a major upgrade from ver¬
Paradox 3:
Neither Enigma
nor Riddle
sion 2, with numerous enhancements and
brand-new options. Like any relational
database manager, it's feature-packed
and extremely complex. We looked at the
prerelease beta version of Paradox 3, and
this First Impression will concentrate on
its new and improved features. Although
the version we discuss here didn't have it,
Paradox's upcoming SQL (Structured
Query Language) engine is a potentially
significant development, (See the text
box "Paradox Tests the SQL Waters” on
page 1 10.)
QBE Gets Better
Paradox was the first PC-based software
package to incorporate a true Query -By-
Example approach to conducting data¬
base operations. And until recently, it
was the only one. (The latest release of
dBASE incorporates QBE, although we
had n 1 1 seen i t at this wri ti ng . ) I BM devel¬
oped the QBE definition in the mid-
1970s. Until Paradox appeared, QBE
was used mainly in minicomputer and
mainframe database applications.
In Paradox 3, QBE is the core of the
user interface. By now, Paradox's table-
based, fill-in-the-blanks approach to lo¬
cating data is familiar to thousands of
users. As QBE implies, performing a
query involves giving examples in a
query table. Paradox has always had a
rich selection of query options, and ver¬
sion 3 has added a few more.
One of the major new features of Para¬
dox 3 is the choice of how to join data that
you query from multiple tables. With any
relational database manager, a common
problem with a query that takes data
from several related tables is what to do
with mismatches. When you join two or
more tables, should records in one table
with no matches in the other be included
or excluded in a new table? Most data¬
base managers simply don't offer you a
choice. They either always exclude the
records, something called an inner join ,
or they always include them, which is
called an outer join.
An inclusion operator in Paradox 3
now gives you the option of easily per¬
forming either an inner or an outer join.
By default, Paradox, like most database
managers, does an inner join of tables.
But in Paradox 3, placing an exclamation
point in the query tells the program to do
an outer join. To be fair, it is possible to
do outer joins with most database man¬
agers, but it requires several steps that
are time-consuming and usually require
more than a bit of programming skill.
In Paradox 3, Borland has extended
the original QBE definition by including
set operations. They add a collection of
logical operations to a Paradox query.
Because they allow you to perform high¬
ly complex queries in a single step, set
operations are another step toward mak¬
ing Paradox 3 easier to use.
Creating sets is a simple matter of
placing the keyword SET in the leftmost
column of a query form. SET defines in¬
formation about sets of records, which
you can then compare with other data.
The SET command works in conjunction
with four new operators: ONLY,
EVERY, EXACTLY, and NO. For ex¬
ample, in a typical order-entry system,
you can use a one-line query to ask
“Which products have been ordered only
by customers in New Hampshire?” Para¬
dox 3 also has an OR operator that lets
you perform additional one-line queries
such as “Who lives in California OR
New York?” In prior versions, this re¬
quired a second line in the query.
Another new feature, though minor,
also adds to Paradox 3's usability. While
you've always been able to perform cal¬
culations within a Paradox query, you
had no control over what the new field in
the resulting table was named. That
problem has been solved with an AS op¬
erator that lets you name the new field.
Improving Relations
Although relational database managers
have become an industry standard, they
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 109
PARADOX 3
Paradox Tests the SQL Waters
One of the big promises of the
networked computing environ¬
ment of the 1990s is the marriage be¬
tween local databases on personal com-
puters and large databases on main¬
frames and minicomputers via the
Structured Query Language. The idea
is that users of local databases such as
Paradox or d BASE will be able to issue
queries in the 'native language" of the
database. Those queries are then trans¬
lated into SQL and transparently trans¬
mitted to remote databases, where the
query is processed and the data is re¬
trieved and sent back to the local data¬
base, Ideally, the data on the remote
database appears as just another table
on the local database.
This type of transparent connectivity
to SQL will offer some major advan¬
tages to database users in large organi¬
zations. It will be possible not only to
centralize important data on the main¬
frame or minicomputer, but also to
allow users access to that data on their
PCs with all their inherent advantages
such as independent processing, graphi¬
cal interfaces, and a large and flexible
software base. Centralization will also
g re at I y i m prove t he se c u ri ty , con s i ste n -
cy, and integrity of the organization's
data.
Although it wasn't available in the
beta version we tested, Paradox SQL
connectivity was demonstrated by Bor¬
land at a recent industry trade show.
The demonstration simultaneously ac¬
cessed databases in Oracle's SQL,
IBM's OS/2 Extended Edition, Novell's
XQL, and the Sybase SQL Server,
Borland has developed a core SQL
“engine" for Paradox that translates
queries issued using the Paradox Query-
By-Example feature. The user issues a
QBE query. If a remote database is pres¬
ent, the Paradox SQL engine detects its
presence, translates the query into
SQL, and sends it to the remote data¬
base. The result of the query appears on
the PC as a Paradox Answer table.
Like most so-called standards, the
leading versions of SQL now on the
market are incompatible with each
other. But these incompatibilities are
apparently inconsequential to the SQL
connectivity engine built into Paradox,
which simply has different translators
that handle the different versions of
SQL.
Paradox users won't be aware of this
process because the remote data will ap¬
pear as a Paradox table regardless of the
source of the remote database or its ver¬
sion of SQL, The Paradox SQL connec¬
tivity package will also include remote
dala entry into SQL databases and
the “pass-through" of PAL (Paradox
Application Language) syntax to SQL
queries.
do have inherent problems. One typical
difficulty is aptly named the “order-en¬
try problem/1 because it manifests itself
during the design of common order-entry
databases. Designing a single form that
enters a sales order, displays customer
information, and lets you enter an un¬
limited number of items isn't as trivial as
it sounds. The interrelationships between
items can quickly become very complex .
Another problem of relational data¬
bases is what designers call referential
integrity % which is making sure that ex¬
plicit relationships between records are
maintained. For example, a common
goal is to make sure a customer record
can't be deleted if that customer has an
outstanding order.
Problems like these aren't insur¬
mountable, but in most database man¬
agement systems they require a great
deal of programming knowledge to
solve. Paradox 3 has added several new
features to forms design that directly ad-
dress these inter-table relations and de¬
pendencies.
The most important of these is the ad¬
dition of multitable forms, A single form
in Paradox 3 can now display data from
multiple tables. Also added are linked
tables within forms. For example, if
you're using a form that uses multiple
tables of data, you can link or unlink the
tables. If you leave the tables unlinked,
you can scroll through multiple tables in¬
dividually on the form. But if you link
the forms, the multiple tables remain re¬
lated to each other. As you move through
a database, Paradox 3 automatically
keeps track of the interrelationships of
the data. In a typical linked application,
Paradox 3 won’t let you delete a record
when other records depend on it. This
serves to eliminate the referential integ¬
rity problem.
Graphically Speaking
One long-awaited addition in Paradox 3
is its advanced graphics capabilities.
While graphics are available in other
database managers— either integrated
into the package or as extra-cost add¬
ons— Paradox 3's graphics are singular
in both ease of use and versatility. The
program has a large selection of graph
types, including the standard pie charts,
line graphs, bar graphs, and xty graphs.
Creating a graph is simple: You use
Paradox's ROTATE command to rotate
data columns into the order you want
them to appear and then press a single
key, Paradox 3 instantly graphs the data,
choosing the type of graph that’s most
fitting for the type of data you’re graph¬
ing, If you want to change the graph type
or otherwise customize the graph, you
have a full contingent of graphics menus.
Besides printing graphs on most
printers, you can also export Paradox 3
graphs in a variety of industry -standard
graphics file formats for further work.
And if you need to give presentations, a
WAIT command within the program lets
you create a “slideshow" of Paradox 3
graphs.
Crosstab Control
A new feature that's tightly coupled to
Paradox 3's graphics capabilities is its
crosstab function. The package's normal
table view of data is usually the best way
of organizing and viewing information.
But especially when you want to graph
data, a spreadsheet-type view of the data
is more useful. The crosstab command
instantly converts a standard table into a
matrix -type spreadsheet view. For ex¬
ample, crosstab converts a table that con¬
tains customer names, item names, and
amount sold into a new table with item
names as column headers and counts in
columnar format. The result of graphing
this type of data is easier to interpret.
Depending on how you've organized
your databases, crosstabs don’t always
improve graphs. However, the crosstab
spreadsheet-type view is useful with Par¬
adox 3's import/export features. To Par¬
adox's 1-2-3 connection, Borland has
conveniently added the ability to import
data from its own Quattro spreadsheet.
Adding Color to Your Life
In previous versions, Paradox didn't use
color very well, simply giving you a
NO BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 111 on Reader Service Cani
PARADOX 3
white-on-blue display on a color monitor.
But version 3 lets you use color effective¬
ly, indeed. Yon can specify colors for
fields, forms, menus, and just about
every other component of the program.
This can be more than a little useful.
For instance, you can have negative num¬
bers show up in redT highlight the most
important parts of a form, or even high¬
light a current table image in a different
color* Though it sounds trivial, Paradox
3Js color control can help you make your
applications easier to use and more
intuitive.
Your Programming PAL
The Paradox Applications Language has
always been one of the most powerful
database programming languages in the
business. And the version of PAL that
comes with Paradox 3 has a host of en-
bancements, including new commands
and additional arguments for existing
statements. Space restrictions preclude
our going into detail about them; but as
you might expect, most of the added
commands support Paradox 3’s new
features.
PAL, like the programming languages
of Paradox 3 competitors, requires a
goodly amount of programming experi¬
ence to use effectively. Not coinciden¬
tally, it also requires a large time
commitment to learn* Since PAL pro¬
gramming is essentially a full-time
proposition, serious PAL programmers
are likely to be found in large companies
with a heavy commitment to Paradox.
For the rest of us, the Personal Program-
mer is included with every copy of Para¬
dox 3. Also updated for the new version,
the Personal Programmer is an interac¬
tive applications generator that lets you
create turnkey menu-driven custom
applications.
Appearing on the Network
Last but not least in Paradox 3 are a few
small enhancements to its multiuser ca¬
pabilities. Ever since Paradox 2, the
package has been one of the few off-the-
shelf applications that easily handle net¬
works with no modifications. Not sur¬
prisingly, all the enhancements and new
features mentioned above also work on
networks.
One intriguing application that uses
Paradox 3*s new graphics capabilities is
the ability for a manager to use Paradox 3
on a network to monitor workflow* For
instance, a system manager can use the
package to graph data that other users are
entering* And because Paradox 3 per¬
forms network updates in real time, the
graphs will change as data is entered.
Paradox 3
Type
Relational database manager
Company
Borland International
1800 Green Hills Rd.
P.O. Box 660001
Scoits Valley , CA 95066
(800) 543-7543
(408) 438-8400
Format
Unavailable in beta version
Language
C
Hardware Needed
IBM PC, AT, XT, PS/2, or compatible
with 512K bytes of memory, DOS 3.0 or
higher, a hard disk drive, and one
floppy disk drive To display graphics,
a CGA, EGA, VGA, or Hercules
graphics adapter ■$ needed.
Documentation
Unavailable in beta version
Price
$725
Inquiry 1087.
The Contender
Individually, the enhancements to Para¬
dox 3 are impressive. Taken together,
they result in an exceptional database
management system that has all the capa¬
bilities necessary for even the most ad¬
vanced applications. Yet unlike most of
its major competitors, Paradox 3 is intu¬
itive enough so that it can be used for
many applications without a large learn¬
ing curve. Still, getting the most from
Paradox does require a commitment to
learning. But its extensive on-line help,
coupled with a set of updated and rewrit¬
ten manuals, makes that job far from ar¬
duous. Priced at $725, Paradox 3 isn’t
exactly inexpensive, but itTs comparable
w i th other h i gh - e nd , h igh - po wc red d a ra-
basc management packages. With the re¬
lease of Paradox 3, Borland now has a
product that easily matches, and in some
ways surpasses, the competition* ■
Stmt Miastkowski is a BYTE contributing
editor, director of K + 5 Concepts (a
documentation and consulting firm) , and
editor of the 11 OS Report ” newsletter. He
can be reached on BIX as '* stanm " Nick
Baran is a BYTE technical editor based in
San Francisco. He can he reached on BIX
as "nickbaran. Ji
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FEBRUARY \ 989 - BYTE III
NATURAL LANGUAGE INTERFACE
THE COMPUTER CHRONICLES
makes keeping up with the information age easy.
Stewart Cheifet and Gary Kildall
are your co-hosts for a weekly half-hour television
program aimed at computer users, owners, educators
and computer industry professionals. If you’re looking
for help in finding out what’s new and what’s news,
tune in to THE COMPUTER CHRONICLES every
week on your local public television station.
The latest developments in personal computer
hardware and software are discussed, demonstrated
and reviewed. The industry’s top developers, execu¬
tives, analysts, and journalists keep you on the cutting
edge of the computer business. Paul Schindler reviews
new software and Wendy Woods goes on location to
find out how users are taking advantage of new
developments.
Topics this season include Local Area Network
Software — Fax Boards — New Generation Spread¬
sheets — Color Printers — SQL — Hard Disk Manage¬
ment — Hypertext — Display Technology — Program¬
ming Languages — PC Kits — Bus Wars — The Battle
of the Operating Systems — Foreign Language Soft¬
ware — Artifical Intelligence — Neural Network Tech¬
nology — Megaherz Mania — Software Piracy — Per¬
sonal Information Management Software — Optical
Storage — and much more.
Each week THE COMPUTER CHRONICLES
looks at the top stories of the week in Random
Access, a news segment designed to keep you
informed about the latest developments in the com¬
puter industry.
THE COMPUTER CHRONICLES, a weekly
half-hour of public television that just might be the
help you need.
THE COMPUTER CHRONICLES IS NOW ON BIX
BIX, the Byte Information Exchange, now has a conference for The Computer
Chronicles.
Now you can communicate directly with the staff of The Computer Chronicles to
suggest topics for future shows or to request information or details on past shows.
Once on BIX, just type “COMP. CHRON” at the colon (:) prompt.
112 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
COVER STORY
FIRST IMPRESSIONS ■ Nick Baran
The Mac SE
Takes Off
The newest version
of the Mac SE
runs rings around
its predecessor
If you're interested in brute Mac
power, but you lack the desk space
or the credit line for a IIx, then the
new Mac SE/3G may be just the ma¬
chine for you. This newest Mac is a
major addition to the Apple Macintosh
product line. Featuring a 68030 CPU
and a 68882 floating-point unit (FPU),
the Mac SE/30 puts the heart of the Mac
IIx into the body of a Mac SE, In fact, the
only thing the Mac IIx has that the Mac
SE/30 doesn't have is the NuBus expan¬
sion card cage.
The new machine is the latest in just
one family of Macs. Apple now talks of a
“modular” family of machines (which
currently consists of the Mac II and IIx)
and a “compact" family of machines
(now headed by the Mac SE/30 and in¬
cluding the Mac Plus and SE), The Mac
SE/30 bridges the gap between the high
performance of the modular systems and
the small footprint of the compact fam¬
ily. As you'll see, the Mac SE/30 is in
fact just as powerful as any of the modu¬
lar systems.
From the outside, the Mac SE/30
looks like any other Mac Plus or SE. But
the internals of the machine represent a
new design incorporating the perfor¬
mance features of the Mac IIx. The new
logic board (see photo 1) sports a 16-
MHz Motorola 68030 processor with a
built-in memory management unit
(MMU), just like the Mac IIx. The logic
board also has the same single in-line
memory module (SIMM) RAM chips as
the Mac IIx, and it is expandable to 8
megabytes.
PHOTOGRAPHY: PAUL AVIS© 1989
The Mac SE/30 also uses the same
25 6K -byte SIMM -mounted ROMs. This
means that the Mac SE/30 can support
Toolbox functions such as Color Quick¬
Draw, although it comes standard with
the familiar 9-inch built-in black-and-
white monitor. A new 32-bit expansion
slot, however, provides an obvious op¬
portunity to add color to the Mac SE/30.
A 16-MHz 68882 FPU comes stan¬
dard, and so does the Apple Sound Chip
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 ‘BYTE ID
8530 5380
serial SCSI GLU
chip chip chip
Built-in
monitor
connection
G4K bytes
of dual-ported
video RAM
SIMM
sockets for 8
megabytes
of RAM
68882 256K-byte
FPU SIMM ROMs
Floppy
disk drive
connector
ADB
chip
68030
CPU
030
Direct
Slot
Battery for
parameter
RAM
Photo 1: The new Mac SE/30 logic board features a 16-MHz 68030 CPU and a 68882 FPU. There ’$ only one floppy disk drive
connector on the board (the Mac SE has two). Note the SIMM-mounted ROMs and the 030 Direct Slot. Also note the 64 R bytes of
video RAM just above the SIMM RAM.
114 BYTE* FEBRUA RY 1 989
COVER STORY
THE MAC SE TAKES OFF
supporting four- voice stereo sound. The
Mac SE/30 also features the new SWIM
(Super Wozniak Integrated Machine)
f loppy disk drive controller chip, as well
as the FDHD (which stands for “floppy
disk high-density1’) floppy disk drive
that reads MS-DOS- or OS/ 2 -formatted
disks as well as Apple II ProDOS disks.
However, you still have to use the Apple
File Exchange utility to transfer files
from a foreign ope rating- system format
to the Macintosh system.
And there's more. The Mac SE/30
features a single 32-bit expansion slot
cailed the 030 Direct Slot. It is basically
NuBus-compatible but has a different
form factor so that NuBus cards won't
fit. But Apple engineers told me that you
can easily convert Mac II NuBus logic
designs to the 030 Direct Slot and that
you can use the same NuBus software
drivers.
However, the 030 Direct Slot's 120-
pin Euro-DIN connector is not physically
compatible with either the 96-pin Mac II
NuBus or the 96-pin Mac SE expansion
slots. The Direct Slot is positioned verti¬
cally in the computer chassis, unlike the
horizontal layout of the expansion slot in
the standard Mac SE (see photo 2).
One other significant change from the
standard Mac SE is the use of 64K bytes
of separate dual -ported video RAM to
control the internal monitor. Since this
video RAM is connected directly to the
CPU, there's no need for a video buffer
in the memory subsystem. This means
that main memory is not burdened with
the additional task of controlling video
I/O, unlike the Mac SE's memory sub¬
system. Specifically, in the original Mac
SE design, the CPU had to interleave its
memory accesses (three out of four
cycles) with the video display circuits so
that the Mac's screen could be drawn.
This meant that the Mac SE's CPU could
access memory only 75 percent of the
time, which degraded system perfor¬
mance. The separate video RAM in the
Mac SE/30 allows the 68030 processor to
access memory at every cycle. This is a
big win in performance, since applica¬
tions execute in fewer cycles than with
the previous video buffer system.
The basic interfaces in the Mac SE/30
remain unchanged from those of the Mac
SE. The SE/30 has two Apple Desktop
Bus connectors, two RS-232C/RS-422
serial ports, and a SCSI connector rated
at the same transfer rate as the one in the
standard Mac SE: I72K bytes per second
for polled transfers, and 656K bytes per
second for blind transfers.
Along with the Mac SE/30, there is a
continued
Photo 2a: The cramped
insides of the Mac SE/30.
Photo 2b: The expansion
board mounts vertically in the
chassis , In the original Mac
SE, the expansion board
mounted horizontally under
the main logic board.
FEBRUARY 1989 - BYTE 115
COVER STORY
THE MAC SE TAKES OFF
Table 1: According to the version L2 BYTE Benchmarks, the new Mac SE/30
outperforms the Mac SE and the Mac II, and it approaches the performance of
(and in some cases , even outperforms) the Mac IIx, with which it shares a
common coprocessor AH times are in seconds .
Test
Mac SE/30
Mac SE
Mac II
Mac IIx
CPU
Matrix
16.4
69.2
21.2
17,1
Sieve
31.7
170.2
40.2
31,3
Sort
29.5
154,1
44,2
29.5
String move
Byte- wide
82.1
373.6
93,9
82.1
Word*wide
42.1
186.8
45,6
42.1
Doubleword
22.9
121.3
22.9
22.8
Disk I/O
SubFinder Seek
SCSI
(1 block)
16.6
28.3
16
13.9
(32 blocks)
154.3
185.9
35.7
35,6
File I/O
Seek
0.2
0.6
0,2
0.1
Read (seconds/ K byte)
0,02
0.049
0,02
0.021
Write (seconds/K byte)
0.01
0.044
0,01
0.014
Large file
Write
4.3
11.8
5.2
4.3
Read
4.8
8.4
4.8
4.7
Video
Text
Text edit
5.7
16.3
5.6
4,7
Draw string
2.4
39
1,8
1.6
Graphics
Small-C
44.6
80.9
57.7
52.8
QuickDraw
0.3
1.2
0.3
0.3
Floating Point
Math
1476
891.3
175.3
151.5
Trapezoidal rule: sine(x)
73.3
598,0
84.8
72,7
Trapezoidal rule: e*
97.9
7207
112.5
966
new version of the System software— ver¬
sion 6.0.3. This new version includes
some fixes to the FDHD driver and to the
Apple File Exchange, allowing a wider
tolerance for MS- DOS -formatted disks.
For current Mac users, unless you use
the Apple File Exchange, there is no rea¬
son to upgrade to version 6.0.3.
Pricing and Configurations
The Mac SE/30 is available in two con¬
figurations: either with 2 megabytes of
RAM and a 40-megabyte hard disk
drive, or with 4 megabytes of RAM and
an 80-megabyte hard disk drive. Both
configurations come with the 68882
FPU* Both hard disk drives have an aver¬
age access time of less than 30 millisec¬
onds, according to Apple engineers.
The Mac SE/30 with 2 megabytes of
RAM and the 40-megabyte hard disk
drive will cost $5069, according to
Apple. As we go to press, Apple says the
4-megabyte version with the 80-mega-
byte hard disk drive will cost $6369. As
with most Apple pricing structures, nei¬
ther of these configurations includes a
keyboard.
Upgrades
Apple plans to offer upgrades for current
Mac SE owners. You will be able to up¬
grade either to a new logic board with 1
megabyte of RAM or just to the FDHD
disk drive and SWIM chip disk drive
controller. Note that you will not be able
to use the 1 50-nanosecond memory from
your old Mac SE in the new Mac SE/30,
since the SE/30 requires the faster 120-
ns RAM used on the Mac 1L
You can bet that the upgrade price for
the logic board will make you think
twice. It may actually be cheaper to sell
your standard Mac SE and then buy a
new Mac SE/30 than it would be to up¬
grade. At the time of this writing, Apple
had not set price or availability for up¬
grades, though the company says it ex¬
pects to have the upgrades available in
March.
Performance
Although I had limited time to work with
the new machine, I was able to run the
BYTE benchmarks on a Mac SE/30 at
Apple’s headquarters. The machine !
tested had a 40-megabyte hard disk drive
and 8 megabytes of RAM. Table 1 shows
the BYTE benchmark (version 1.2) re¬
sults of the SE/30 compared with those
for a standard Mac SE, a Mac II, and a
Mac IIx. As you can see, the perfor¬
mance of the SE/30 is comparable to a
Mac IIx and in some cases exceeds it.
Clearly, this machine is in a whole dif¬
ferent league than the standard Mac SE.
In particular, note that processor¬
intensive tests, such as the Sieve, String
Move, and floating-point tests, show the
SE/30 sometimes outperforming the
standard SE by almost an order of mag¬
nitude. To be fair, I should note that the
standard SE does not have an FPU. Disk
read/ write operations are also faster,
since the Mac SE/30 uses higher-speed
hard disk drives.
So Why Buy a Mac II?
This is the obvious question. The Mac
SE/30 offers essentially the same fea¬
tures as a Mac IIx. The only real differ¬
ence is that the Mae II and IIx have six
NuBus expansion slots. You can expect
to see lots of Mac I Is operating as net¬
work file servers with Mac SEs and
SE/30s as nodes on the network.
The other difference is that Apple does
not plan to support A/UX on the Mac
SE/30. So if you want to run Unix, you’ll
have to buy a Mac IIx, unless you're will¬
ing to try running an unsupported ver¬
sion of A/UX on the Mac SE/30. Since
the SE/30 uses the same CPU, MMU,
and ROM as the Mac IIx, there is no rea¬
son why A/UX would not run on it. It's
just that Apple won’t support it.
The Mac SE/30 is a very attractive
machine. It’s expensive, but it brings
truly high-performance capabilities to
the “compact” Macintosh product line.
It essentially puts the power of a Mac IIx
within the small footprint of the Mac
Plus/Mac SE family. In fact, it’s so at¬
tractive, I wonder how close Apple came
to giving it a different name— one more
in keeping with the Mac IIx: the Mac
SEx. ■
Nick Baran is a BYTE senior technical
editor based in San Francisco. He can be
reached on BIX as “nickbaran. ”
116 BYTE - FEBRUARY 1989
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Stalking new hardware
and software,
Jerry prowls the halls
of COMDEX
I am just back from COMDEX. Nat¬
urally, I didn’t want to turn in my
column before I went, meaning that
it’s very late now and has to be on
the wire by dawn, meaning that I’m not
going to have much time for testing either
hardware or software. It’s all right,
though. While I normally talk about lit¬
tle that I haven’t actually got up and run¬
ning at Chaos Manor, I use different
rules for show reports.
Also, I got a fair amount of stuff tested
before I went to Las Vegas. There’s no
lack of stuff to write about: my “ready
line” is overloaded.
Gray Scales
It used to be that lots of major players
used COMDEX as the stage for announc¬
ing spectacular new products. After a
while, there were so many that I never
had time to see them all. All we journal¬
ist types had the same problem, and
when we’d get together in the pressroom
we’d try to compare notes, but it was fu¬
tile. Something important would be over¬
looked. Maybe a lot of somethings. A
number of companies noticed this and
decided that COMDEX was a lousy time
to announce anything really new. New
product announcements nearly vanished.
However, a few outfits have cottoned
on to the idea that no one announces at
COMDEX anymore, so although there
weren’t many new product announce¬
ments this year, there were a few.
The most exciting new hardware I saw
this year was Intel’s Visual Edge print¬
ing-enhancement system. This is a pair
of boards— one for your IBM PC AT
compatible (or 80386), the other for your
EXPERT ADVICE
COMPUTING AT CHAOS MANOR Jerry Pournelle
Ready Line
Overload
Hewlett-Packard LaserJet II— plus cable
and software. Put it all together, and you
can do halftone printing from Page¬
Maker, Snapshot, Ventura Publisher,
Publisher’s Paintbrush, and a bunch of
other desktop publishing programs.
The result as demonstrated at COM¬
DEX is pretty spectacular. Visual Edge
gives you 64 levels of gray at 70-line-per-
inch resolution, and the hardware printed
a large, complicated picture in about 3
minutes. Intel’s press kit includes a
bunch of pictures reproduced on a good-
quality (19 gray levels) copier, and the
same pictures scanned with a 256-gray-
level Microtek scanner, then printed with
a LaserJet II with Visual Edge. Believe
me, you won’t have any trouble figuring
which is which. The press kit says Visual
Edge gives a 300 percent improvement,
and it looks about like that to me.
You can also get 37 levels of gray at
100 lpi, when resolution is more impor¬
tant than tone and shading.
You’ll need expanded memory to use
Visual Edge: 1 megabyte for !4 page, and
4 megabytes for a full page. Of course,
you need expanded memory to get much
good out of any desktop publishing pro¬
gram. Obviously, Intel would like to sell
you a genuine Above Board to supply it,
and certainly that’s as good a way to go
as any. The good news is that since Visu¬
al Edge uses your computer’s memory to
stoke graphics into the LaserJet II, you
can use the printer’s memory to hold
downloaded fonts. Visual Edge also
speeds printing up by anywhere from
200 to 400 percent.
All told, Visual Edge adds a whole
new dimension to desktop publishing. I
don’t recommend products I’ve seen
only at shows, but if you’re really inter¬
ested in desktop publishing under DOS,
you really ought to have a look at this.
Logic Gem
Most of the big companies come to
COMDEX. At great expense, they fill
the main convention hall; booths have
been getting larger and larger, probably
because COMDEX lets big booth buyers
have first choice on location. (I wandered
into a room where they were coordinat¬
ing booth allocations for next year, and I
discovered that it’s really a very compli¬
cated affair requiring quite a few people
and a lot of communications, much like
an auction that goes on over 3 days.
Somebody ought to do a story on it.)
Anyway, you get your turn choosing
COMDEX space both by booth size and
by the number of years you’ve been com¬
ing (and if you ever drop out, you have to
start over). This means that the big,
long-established companies tend to fill
the main exhibition hall. New companies
are sent to outlying areas, like the Bally
(formerly MGM) Grand.
This year, some new companies were
put in a place called Cashman Field,
which is somewhere near downtown Las
Vegas. I met only one press person who
ever found Cashman Field, much less
went there. Certainly I didn’t. I hear
rumors that next year, simultaneously
with COMDEX, they ’ll have MACDEX,
a show devoted entirely to Macintosh
computers and products, and that MAC¬
DEX will be at Cashman Field. I’ve al¬
ways wondered if Apple truly wants to
fence their machines and users off from
the rest of the microcomputer communi¬
ty. Possibly this will do it for them. It
might also put them down where they’ll
be visited only by the Little Sisters of the
Poor. We’ll see.
Anyway, since most of the start-up
companies tend to be put into the Bally
Grand, I generally find it worthwhile to
spend a day there, and more often than
not I find that the most interesting day of
the show. This time was no exception.
The most exciting software at COM¬
DEX was called Logic Gem, published
by Sterling Castle Software (and yes, I
know that the one in Scotland is Stirling
Castle). They didn’t have a copy for me
to bring home (for the standard reason:
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 • BYTE 121
CHAOS MANOR
“The documents are being printed”), so
I haven’t tested it here; but assuming that
it performs as I saw it demonstrated,
Logic Gem is going to change the way we
write programs.
Logic Gem lets you make up a table of
all sorts of conditions: data types (is this
an integer?), keyboard input characters
(is there input, and if so, is it a backspace
character?), Booleans (is this condition
true?), variables (is variable FOO greater
than variable BAR?), or indeed almost
anything you like. You can then add out¬
comes: beep, go get an input character,
exit loop, look for a disk file, and stuff
like that. These go into another table.
Once that’s done, the program gener¬
ates all the possible logical sequences of
the conditions you added and generates a
new table. You can then couple condi¬
tions with outcomes. For a simple exam¬
ple, if there is an input character, and it is
not numeric and not a backspace, beep
and go get another input character;
otherwise, exit from the loop.
When you’ve set up all the outcomes
you want with the conditions that should
make them happen, the program gener¬
ates the rules. You can edit these rules
until you have things the way you want. If
your edit produces a logical inconsis¬
tency, the program warns you. When
you’re finished. Logic Gem will gener¬
ate commented source code in C, struc¬
tured BASIC, Pascal, dBASE, FOR¬
TRAN, or natural language (English).
You can incorporate the source code into
a larger program and compile it.
According to Sterling Castle’s litera¬
ture, the natural-language output “is
ideal for program documentation.”
From the demonstrations I saw, I’d say it
would be fine to put into an appendix,
but I sure wouldn’t want to spend a lot of
time reading that. On the other hand. I
prompted them to make up some tables,
then examined the Pascal and structured
BASIC code generated, and it looked
fine to me. Even the comments made
sense.
I’ve just finished doing some pro¬
gramming for Mrs. Pournelle’s reading
program, and I often got complicated IF
THEN. . .ELSE IF constructs wrong. 1
expect everyone does. That isn’t sup¬
posed to happen if you’re using Logic
Gem, since it generates code to do exact¬
ly what you want and nothing else.
If that weren’t enough. Sterling Castle
claims that Logic Gem can also generate
code to “collect optimization statistics
for frequency of logic use and user-
defined cost functions. These results
may then be fed back into the logic com¬
piler to generate more efficient code.”
I’ve always said that the future of pro¬
gramming lies in figuring out what you
want the computer to do, not how to
make that happen, because as machines
get more powerful, we’ll develop more
and better tools that can get the machines
to do anything we want them to do. If
Logic Gem works as I saw it demon¬
strated— and I have no reason to suppose
it won’t— it will be a real step toward the
future I predicted.
DESQview 386
Quarterdeck’s DESQview, for those few
who don’t know, is a multitasking pro¬
gram that lets you run several of your
present DOS programs at once. The way
I use it, DESQview doesn’t quite do thatj,
except for communications, I don’t run
programs in background, because I don't
do long compilations or spreadsheet re¬
calculations. However, I do like to keep a
whole flock of programs and utilities in
continued
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CHAOS MANOR
memory, so that I can switch from one to
another; it speeds things up something
wonderful.
DESQview on a PCompatible is slow
and might or might not be worthwhile,
depending on your applications. On an
80286 machine, it’s a rival to Microsoft
Windows: it’s easier to install, harder to
learn, and considerably better with the
general run of programs, although not as
good as Windows running programs de¬
signed for Windows. DESQview is pretty
good, a lot better than running an 80286
machine bare, and a way to make use of
expanded memory; but it’s not wonder¬
ful, either.
It’s on an 80386 (and presumably the
new 80386SX, which I haven’t tried yet)
that DESQview really speeds thing up.
DESQview 386 is really just an up¬
graded DESQview 2.2 plus a new release
of Quarterdeck’s QEMM-386 memory
manager. (There’s a 286 memory man¬
ager that speeds up DESQview for 80286
machines, but it’s not the same.) I’ve
been using a beta-test copy of this 80386-
only package for a couple of months. I
picked up the shipping copy at COM¬
DEX, brought it home, installed it as an
update— if DESQview detects that
there’s an older version of itself on your
hard disk, it doesn’t change your config¬
uration, macro, and information files —
and began running. Incidentally, I like
DESQview’s installation a lot. There are
all too many programs that don’t pay any
attention to whether you’ve already in¬
stalled an earlier version.
Lately, my normal DESQview setup
on the big Cheetah 386 has been Grand-
View in window 1, Q&A Write installed
with Microlytics’ Word Finder in win¬
dow 2, and SideKick and Procomm Plus
loaded in window 3. Norton Command¬
er, DOS services, and other stuff go in
later windows if I need them. When I exit
Procomm Plus, the window doesn’t
close, and SideKick sits there ready to be
accessed when I want it. I ran that way
with the beta-test DESQview 2.2 for
weeks.
The shipping copy crashed that system
within 10 minutes. Worse: it crashed it in
the worst possible way, by locking out
the keyboard in Q&A Write while I was
doing this column. Now, by “locking
out’’ I mean locking out : nothing, in¬
cluding Ctrl-Alt-Del, worked. It was as
if the keyboard had been disconnected
from the machine— so much so that I
actually got down on the floor to check
the cable connections. There was nothing
for it but to hit the hardware reset button,
thus losing all the text I had just entered.
Fortunately, my early training on
microcomputers has stuck: I save text
early and often, generally at the end of
each paragraph. It’s as much a nervous
habit as anything else, but what with a
fast 80386 machine and the Priam 330-
megabyte hard disk drive, it doesn't take
much time.
Anyway, I didn’t lose much the first
time DESQview locked up, and I was on
my guard after that, which was just as
well, because it did it three more times,
at which point I decided that enough was
enough. Before I installed the newest
version of DESQview 2.2, I had, of
course, saved the old copy off to the Max¬
imum Storage APX-3200 WORM (write
once, read many) drive; I figured it was
time to restore it.
WORMs in Paradise
I had some minor glitches with that; I
used every beta-test version of Maximum
124 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
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CHAOS MANOR
Storage's software, and apparently l have
version dashes now. It's nothing I'm
worried about, since I was in fact able to
recover all my files: but that took longer
than I liked.
The principal symptom was that DIR
showed me several files with the same
name (but with different dates). This
shouldn't be. A WORM drive does pre¬
serve everything you put on it— if you
save several files with the same name, it
creates a new one each time— but DIR
isn't supposed to be able to find any but
the latest copies. Anyway, Norton Com¬
mander also saw multiple copies, but
since it lets you select (with a scroll bar)
precisely which file you want to copy, I
didn't have any great difficulties extract¬
ing the one f wanted.
A discussion with Theresa Beyers,
Maximum Storage's technical wizard,
generated the version-clash hypothesis.
I’ll try a new storage cartridge and the
latest software; if that doesn't do it,
they'll look at the drive hardware. Fortu¬
nately, I have a second drive (which will
eventually go to the Lowell Observa¬
tory), so this is no problem.
Since I have recovered all my files,
Tm annoyed* not panicked; I still like
WORM drives a lot better than 1 like tape
backup. Even with the problems, I got
the work done about as fast as tape or
Fastback Plus would have done it.
Back to DESQview
Anyway, l got the old version of DESQ¬
view restored but left the new QEMM in
place. That worked fine, so the night
wasn’t wasted. Next morning I called
Gary Saxer at Quarterdeck.
After a long discussion, we concluded
that the problem was an open Procomm
Plus window containing SideKick,
SideKick was one of the earliest of the
terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) pro¬
grams. It did things in a particularly
sloppy way, and for reasons I don't quite
understand, Borland never cleaned up
SideKick’s act. Both GrandView and
Q&A Write know about DESQview.
Word Finder doesn't, but it's a late
model and a fairly well behaved TSR.
“SideKick, though," Gary said, “tries
hard to intercept everything it can, and
by definition a communications program
runs in background. Meanwhile, we've
been working real hard to make DESQ¬
view work with multiple TSRs. I think
SideKick is running in background and
sometimes it sees what it thinks is its hot
key."
"But I need SideKick—"
"You can open it in its own window.
We know how to handle it there. But I
think having SideKick in a communica¬
tions window without the communica¬
tions program may give it a chance to do
mischief."
Could be, thought 1. The DESQview
documents are complete, if very hard to
find anything in. (No index. I hate that.
But that's all right: 1 think my son Alex
and I will do a book on DESQview. That
will have an index.) Eventually, I fig¬
ured out how to work this*
l invoke SideKick, Lhen Procomm
Plus, in a batch file. I want SideKick be¬
cause it has neat features in its notebook.
The F4 key will capture text off the
screen into the notepad editor. You can
edit that text, or write your own, then do
Control-K-E, and SideKick will squirt
out a marked block of text through the
modem. I use the combination for BIX,
and it's very handy.
continued
FEBRUARY 19S9 * B Y T E 125
CHAOS MANOR
However, wrhen I would quit Proeomm
Plus, that particular window stayed
open, and I used it as the SideKick win¬
dow. DESQview' s manual tells me that
if the last command in the batch file that
loads SideKick, then Proeomm Plus, is
EXIT, the window will close when I shut
down Proeomm Plus. If I want SideKick
when Proeomm Plus isn't up, I have to
put it in a separate window. This some¬
times means that I have two copies of
SideKick running, but that’s no problem*
I’ve made the recommended changes:
I put EXIT in the batch file to load Pro-
comm Pius, then reinstalled the latest
version of DESQview. Eve also opened
SideKick in a separate window.
It works fine. I've been pounding
away on this column for a few hours, and
no glitches whatever.
The Quarterdeck people are working
to see if they can’t fix the problem from
inside; meanwhile, DESQview works
fine, but you shouldn’t leave windows
with SideKick running in background
even if you have enough memory. I can
live with that limitation.
The diagnosis is confirmed. As a test,
I opened the SideKick/Procomm Plus
window and exited without closing the
window; within 5 minutes, I had man¬
aged to hang up the Q&A Write window.
After I reset, I put the EXIT command
back in the Proeomm Plus batch file, and
the problem hasn’t surfaced again.
At COMDEX I saw a great number of
signs touting OS/2; every booth that had
an OS/2 application running got a special
sign from IBM. The reality, though, was
that there were darned few real OS/2 ap¬
plications on display, and none of them
were very impressive. It’s possible that
OS/2 with Presentation Manager will be
the wave of the future. Certainly it could
be, given that IBM puts all that formi¬
dable marketing talent behind it. On the
other hand, IBM has been wrong before.
Remember TopV iew?
I still find DESQview with an 80386
the proper way to operate* Even if you
have only an 80286, DESQview is a bet¬
ter bet than OS/2 just now, I don’t expect
that to change for at least a year. Prob¬
ably longer.
Norton Again
I always enjoy seeing Peter Norton, but
although he lives no more than 10 miles
from Chaos Manor, we get to talk only at
computer shows. Like me, he’s got so
much to do that he seldom has time for
social activities. The result is that we
mostly get together on business. COM¬
DEX was no exception. Norton had a
suite in the Sahara, where he was show¬
ing new products, and, alas, my visit
there was the only time we got to talk. At
least we made a tentative date for dinner
Real Soon Now,
His most important new product is the
Norton Utilities 4*5 (available in stan¬
dard and advanced packages), which
turns out to be a bigger improvement
over version 4.0 than the version num¬
bers indicate. The advanced package in¬
cludes Norton Disk Doctor, a program
they wrote to diagnose and fix logical
disk problems. Unlike Steve Gibson's
SpinRite, NDD doesn’t correct format
errors; but it will unscramble a munged
file allocation table, fix a boot record,
repair the media byte, and take care of a
number of other DOS disk problems.
I'm already on record as saying that
everyone needs the Norton Utilities, Just
last night I managed to erase a file I
wanted to keep, and Norton Utilities got
it back for me with no muss or fuss; and I
continued
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Circle 140 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 ‘BYTE 127
CHAOS MANOR
use the disk sort* sc reel) color, and other
programs in the package nearly every
day.
The new edition is a major upgrade,
and worth getting. Recommended,
ConvertUnits
The whole appeal of the Macintosh is
ease of learning and use. That's probably
why it's so frustrating when things don't
go well.
At COMDEX I was handed a copy of a
program called ConvertUnits from GTA .
This is said to be the most complete and
accurate unit-conversion program for the
Mac. It can be installed as a HyperCard
stack or as a desk accessory (DA),
I've long had such a program for my
IBM PC. It can go in as a TSR or be set
up in its own DESQview window, I don't
use it a lot, but when I do need it, I need it
bad. I figured I ought to have something
like that on the Mac IT, and setting it up
as a DA seemed like the right way to go
about it.
The problem is that I don’t do that very
often, so I had to rely on the Convert-
Units manual. That, alas, is incomplete.
To make ConvertUnits work, you must,
in addition to using the DA Font/ DA
Mover to install the access software in
the DA menu, copy the program's data¬
base files onto the hard disk; but the
manual doesn't tell you that. The Mac’s
DA Font/DA Mover isn't anywhere near
// told ,
ConvertUnits is a
scientifically complete
and accurate unit-
conversion program.
as intuitive as Apple thinks, so I wasn't
sure what I was doing wrong. All 1 knew
was that l had followed the directions that
were given in the manual, and when I
was done, I could pull down the DA menu
and select ConvertUnits, but nothing
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interesting would happen.
Eventually, I figured it out and copied
the ConvertUnits file (which is mis¬
named in the documents) onto the boot
disk. Then I discovered another odd
quirk. ConvertUnits uses the Mac inter¬
face to let you select the kinds of units
you're interested in and what you'll con¬
vert to and from. You then enter a num¬
ber from the keyboard and press Return,
Now suppose you want to change one
of the units but don’t want to change the
value (un ity , for example , i f you T re inter-
ested only in how many ticks of a cesium
atom there are in a day, a week, a galactic
year, a tropical eon, etc,); you use the
mouse to change the unit, but now you
have to let go of the mouse and press Re¬
turn, because there’s no “activate" but¬
ton in the ConvertUnits display.
There are other awkwardnesses in
using the program. None of them are
fatal. Just annoying.
Finally, you can't add new units to the
database table. Of course, you might not
want to: the program has a remarkably
complete set of units, just about every¬
thing in the big CRC Handbook (includ¬
ing furlongs and fortnights).
All told, ConvertUnits is scientifically
complete and accurate. I haven’t seen a
better unit-conversion program for the
Mac, but 1 do wish they’d do an overhaul
on the user interface.
Peabody
I never thought I’d want an on-line DOS
help program. After all, 1 know the com¬
mon commands, and if there’s some¬
thing 1 can't remember, such as the dif¬
ferent switches (e,g,, /s or /a) for
XCOPY, I can always use Chris DeVon-
ey’s Using PC-DOS to look it up. So I be¬
lieved until the other day, when I was
experimenting with some stuff danger¬
ous enough that I wanted to make fre¬
quent backups to my WORM drive and
found that I was looking up the same
things over and over again. Then I re¬
membered Peabody.
I suppose the world is divided into two
kinds of people, those who were Rocky
and Bullwinkle fans, and those who
weren't. Me, I never missed an episode,
so I remember Mr, Peabody, the rather
snobbish dog who had adopted a boy
named Sherman.
Copia International has licensed the
name and image of Mr. Peabody for their
series of on-line help programs. The pro¬
grams are pretty big to be memory-resi¬
dent in a PC, but they know how to use
extended memory, so if you have an AT
or 80386 machine, you can get away with
using as little as 25K bytes of main
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CHAOS MANOR
RAM, 1 set the Peabody MS-DOS guide
up In its own DESQvIew window and
found it pretty useful, so I installed it in
the DESQview menu system. I don't nor¬
mally need it, but it's convenient to have
it available when I want it.
The really valuable guides are those
for various languages. There’s a Pea¬
body guide to C, Turbo Pascal (3.0 and
4.0; 5.0 is in preparation), and Microsoft
assembly language. That last one also
has a whole bunch of stuff about the
iAPX86 family of chips: registers, in¬
struction timings, and the like.
I'm not likely to need the C and assem¬
bly language guides, but the Turbo Pas¬
cal guide intrigues me. While T don’t do
a lot of programming on the road, I might
do more if! had portable reference docu¬
ments, which is what Peabody is.
They've done a pretty good job with
the Interface design. It reminds me a lot
of HyperCard, what with the ability to do
recursive lookups, Peabody pops up with
hot key combinations. One will bring up
the table of contents, so that you can page
through until you find what you want.
The information is pretty complete, too.
Moreover, Peabody lets you add to its
database. You can put in new stuff or do
customized reorganization of what is al¬
ready there.
Peabody's direct competitor is Nor¬
ton, whose Guides work a lot like Pea¬
body but have a different user interface
(not necessarily better or worse, just dif¬
ferent). Like ail Norton software, these
Guides are darned good; but unlike Pea¬
body, you can’t extend them.
Peabody has other exclusive features,
like the “sticky window”: you can desig¬
nate one of the Peabody windows and
have it remain on-screen at all times.
There’s also a way to couple Peabody
with a particular program, like your pro¬
gramming editor. (X note that Copia uses
BRIEF in their examples. Good choice.)
All in all, I prefer Peabody to the Norton
Guides.
A program like Peabody is a bit like
power steering: you don't know you want
it until you've tried it. If 1 did C program¬
ming, I'd sure want Peabody C. I intend
to get a lot of use out of the Turbo Pascal
guide. Now I wish they'd do one for
QuickBASIC.
You may like this one a lot more than
you think you will. I know I did,
TianMa
COMDEX had a number of booths ex¬
hibiting products from Chinese compa¬
nies, both from the People's Republic of
China and the Republic of China (Tai¬
wan). It doesn't take a lot of smarts to
predict that trade with China will grow
steadily; and while a great many more
Chinese learn English than Americans
learn Chinese, it's also pretty clear that
those who can communicate in Chinese
will have an advantage. The problem is
that even if you know the language, it's
not easy to write a fetter in Chinese.
Chinese writing consists of individual
characters, or pictograms; each charac¬
ter represents a word or an idea. The
characters are written in vertical col¬
umns and from right to left. You need to
know several thousand characters to
write the average newspaper article and
even more to write a typical BYTE article
in Chinese.
1 once saw a Chinese typewriter. In
order to have enough characters, it had
several interchangeable sets of keys.
Using it was extremely difficult. Still, I
was told, it was a lot faster than doing it
by hand.
TianMa will apparently solve that
problem,
I say “apparently" because ! don't
know Chinese, and thus I can't legiti¬
mately make a stronger pronouncement;
but, in fact, I have no doubts that this pro¬
gram does what it says it does. The
TianMa exhibition was set up in the cor¬
ridor connecting the two halves of the ex¬
hibits in the Bally Grand, and every time
I passed it, the area was filled with ad¬
miring Asians, many of whom couldn't
speak English. They were impressed: I
must have seen a dozen copies sold on the
spot.
TianMa consists of a ROM board and
some software. When it's installed on a
PC or an AT, you can type Chinese text
using a phonetic entry system— the bro¬
chure says you can choose between the
pinyin and bopomofo methods, and the
program set includes a tutorial on each—
and see your text on-screen in Chinese
characters. The TianMa ROMs have both
classical and simplified fonts and display
the xinhua zidian character set. The pro¬
gram supports high-resolution Hercules,
CGA, and EGA boards, and it doesn't re¬
quire any modification to the computer
(beyond installing the board).
TianMa software has WordStar-like
editing capabilities, including global
search and replace and block operations.
When you're satisfied with your work,
continued
8 Mbytes of memory + 2 serial ports.
v0 Extended and expanded memory. LIM 4.0.
Works with all of your programs.
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Fast and simple switchless installation.
Auto-configuration for all operating systems.
Works in all Micro Channel™ computers.
v0 Expanded memory 10 times faster than Intel.
Risk free guarantee. Two year warranty.
IBM approved ID. $449 OK.
Call today 1-800-234-4232 or 617-273-1818
Capital Equipment Corp.
Burlington, MA. 01803
PS/2 and Micro Channel are trademarks of IBM
Circle 50 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 129
CHAOS MANOR
you can print your Chinese text on a
LaserJet II or LaserJet Plus. The print
quality on a LaserJet is excellent, cer¬
tainly as legible as, say, the Chinese
translations of my books. (Of course, I
can’t read those books, but I can com¬
pare typeface legibility.) The TianMa lit¬
erature says the program will support
DeskJet, the Epson LQ series, and sev¬
eral other printers, but I haven’t seen
samples of any output but LaserJet’s.
The program was demonstrated by its
author, Peter Leimbigler. From what I
could tell, it’s amazingly fast, a lot faster
than any other way I know of to get Chi¬
nese text into print. Again, this is one of
those programs that not everyone will
want, but if you need it, you need it bad.
Data Recovery
I remember when my mad friend, the late
Dan MacLean, confidently predicted
that we’d soon have hard disk drives for
microcomputers.
“They’ll be expensive, I bet,” said I.
“Yeah, but worth it. Think of it, 5
megabytes of storage, and one day they’ll
sell those for less than a thousand
dollars.”
Of course, that was back in the days
when all we had was 160K-byte single¬
sided 8-inch floppy disks; and mostly it
proves that even the best of us is gener¬
ally too conservative in predicting the
future of the microcomputer revolution.
I’m writing this on a machine that has a
Priam 330-megabyte drive, and at COM¬
DEX Priam was showing 765-megabyte
drives that operate at a 14-millisecond
average access time. I didn’t see them,
but I’m told that Micropolis was showing
gigabyte drives able to fit into an AT
chassis. Amazing. We’ve sure come a
long way.
The near universal use of hard disk
drives has given rise to another profes¬
sion: data recovery. Alex and his partner
Barry Workman have built a thriving
business around peeling data off lunched
hard disk drives. Just the other day, Alex
brought over a Mac II with a bad hard
disk drive, and he did some kind of
kludge that involved connecting that ma¬
chine to my Mac II with its Priam Mac-
Disk (300-plus megabytes). Whatever he
did worked fine; he got all his client’s
data back. (If you need help in recover¬
ing data, you might want to contact
Workman and Associates at 1925 East
Mountain St., Pasadena, CA 91104,
(818) 791-7979.)
While Alex was here, I had him look
at Paul Mace’s new book, The Paul Mace
Guide to Data Recovery (Simon and
Schuster, 1988), and his opinion con¬
firms mine: essential reading. Mace tells
you, simply and quite readably, what
causes data loss and how to prevent it.
Mace, you’ll recall, was the first person
to figure out that you could recover data
from a hard disk that had accidentally
been reformatted. Since then, he’s be¬
come an expert on data recovery and loss
prevention.
If you don’t read another computer
book this year, read this one. It could
save you a lot of grief.
Cambridge Z88
Sir Clive Sinclair’s latest computer prod¬
uct is the most portable computer I’ve
ever seen: the Z88 (properly pronounced
in the British manner “Zed-88”). This is
a thin (less than an inch) and lightweight
(less than 2 pounds) compact portable
that comes with a number of programs in
continued
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^ *
130 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 113 on Reader Service Card
STATGRAPHICS
INCOME VS SAVINGS ANALYSIS
VIA INTERACTIVE OUTLIER REGRESSION
2U h ^ZAMBIA
1
DISPOSABLE INCOME
SO: 0.304 SE: 1.1173 T: 7.4321
Bi: 1.0655E-3SE: 7.4902E-4T: 1.4325
CORR: 0.24036 WSE: 20.691 DR 33
POINTS DELETED:
INCOME VS SAVINGS ANALYSIS
VIA INTERACTIVE OUTLIER REGRESSION
DISPOSABLE JNCOME
00: 7.1962 SR 1,1736 T: 6.1319
01: 2.70O1E-3 SE: 1.0234E-3 T: 2.7166
CORR: 0.44433 M3E; 19,147 DR 30
POINTS DELETED: CANADA. SWEDEN. U.S.A
Select the points you want to remove from your
regression model. . .
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Over 250 Statistical Procedures
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Circle 221 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 “BYTE 131
CHAOS MANOR
ROM. These programs include an inte¬
grated spreadsheet and word processor; a
“diary,” which we would call an ap¬
pointment calendar; an alarm clock; and
a printer driver. Optional software in¬
cludes a database manager, a communi¬
cations package, and stuff like that, some
available now, the rest coming “pretty
soon.”
The literature says it has 8 lines of 80
characters on the supertwist screen.
While this is technically true, two of
those lines are taken up by the ROM-
based programs and can't be dispensed
with; that leaves only 6 lines. If you go
beyond 72 characters on a line, there's
horizontal scrolling. Since horizontal
scrolling when you're trying to write is
about as useful as a chocolate covering
for your wristwatch, in effect you have 6
lines of 72 characters.
The screen isn’t particularly easy to
see. Naturally, it's not backlit, and the
letters are small. Still, you can see it. I
used the Z88 to take notes at a couple of
meetings, including the planning session
for the next West Coast Computer Faire,
and that turned out to be fairly easy. Of
course, I was sitting at a table in a well-lit
room. Now I have the Z88 on the mouse
table next to me as I write this; my room
is certainly well lit; but I'm having trou¬
ble seeing the Z88's screen. However, if
1 put it dead in front of me, there's no
problem.
The Z88's keyboard is well laid out.
It's covered with a rubber film to protect
the system from anything wet; presum¬
ably, you can spill your Jolt Cola on this
without harm. The unit has a substantial
and solid feel; I like it. The keys are very
sensitive, much more so than Fm used
to, but again I can adjust. I didn't have a
lot of problems using it for notes at COM¬
DEX, and everyone around me appreci¬
ated how quiet the Z88 is compared to the
Tandy Model 100 or NEC PC-8201.
There's no key click at all.
The manual says the system can be at¬
tached to a disk drive, but there's no ref¬
erence to any such thing in the sales liter¬
ature. I make no doubt that if it becomes
at all popular, Traveling Software will
come up with a version of LapDOS to
connect the Z88 to the small battery-
powered Brother floppy disk drive.
Meanwhile, the system relies on little
memory pack cartridges. These are quite
small, smaller than a packet of cigarettes
(and considerably thinner). They come
in 32K- to 512K-byte sizes. The 32K-
byte cartridge costs $45; the 512K-byte
cartridge, which is what I suppose you'd
actually need (since this is your only real
storage device), is $440, no small sum.
Like everyone else, Sir Clive was caught
in the memory price crunch; when this
system was first designed, memory was
nearly free, and the little memory car¬
tridges were intended to be a lot cheaper.
There's also a cartridge for transfer¬
ring data from the Z88 to a PCompatible
(and another for the Mac). The PC Link
(composed of a cartridge, a disk for the
PC, and cable) costs $75. The Mac ver¬
sion is unaccountably $129; I'd presume
that's merely a reflection of the fact that
everything associated with the Macin¬
tosh costs more.
fyou
write any BASIC
programs for the
Cambridge Z88 or have
really valuable data,
you can save to
an EPROM cartridge.
If you write any programs for the Z88
(it has built-in BASIC) or have really
valuable data, you can save to an EPROM
cartridge. These cost $45 for 32K bytes
and $110 for the 128K-byte variety.
EPROM is the only way you can perma¬
nently store things for the Z88; if 1 were
traveling with this machine, Fd want the
ability to EPROM anything important I
wrote. I'll tell you why in a minute.
The point is that if you want a practical
Z88, you'll pay for it; $599 for the ma¬
chine itself; at least $1 10 for a 128K-byte
RAM cartridge, and more likely $440
for 5I2K bytes; another $110 for an
EPROM cartridge (in fact, I'd want to
have two or three for a long trip, although
I might not use any of them); and at least
$75 for a PC Link package. This adds up
to a minimum of $894 , and it wouldn't be
hard to have considerably more than that
in it. But that's not a lot of money for a
good portable, and certainly the Z88 is
convenient. It's the lightest-weight and
just plain handiest little notebook com¬
puter I have seen.
That's hardware.
The major software of the Z88 is an in¬
tegrated spreadsheet and word processor
called Pipedream. In theory, this ought
to be a great idea: you can put a spread¬
sheet into any document you're writing.
In practice, it's disappointingly hard
to use. As an example, if I start a para¬
graph with a tab (which 1 am in the habit
of doing), the result is a permanent shift
of the left margin. I thought perhaps that
somewhere buried in the documents
(over 200 pages) I'd find a way to cause
all the lines except the first to go to the
left side of the screen, but I tried all I
could find from the index, and all I man¬
aged to do was make a monumental mess
of what I was trying to write; I ended up
with a second document about six char¬
acters wide over to the left of my first
one. As far as I can tell, the only real
remedy is never to use a tab when you're
writing. That's quite a sacrifice.
There are other glitches. The upshot is
that although the documents make it look
as if you could get along with a Z88 as
your only computer, I sure wouldn't want
to if I had to use it a lot. The Pipedream
text editor just can't forget that it's really
a spreadsheet, and thus it only tolerates
being used to write English text.
The Z88 should fare better as a second
machine used as a notebook for students
and journalists. In previous columns,
I’ve complained about the weight of my
Zenith SupersPort 286 laptop: I love it
when I get it to my hotel room, and in¬
deed I did a lot of writing I wouldn't have
done at COMDEX if Fd had anything
less powerful with me. On the other
hand, I sure wasn’t about to carry the
SupersPort around with me to meetings,
or even from my hotel room to the BYTE
booth. It's just too darned heavy.
Incidentally, I have managed to take
some of the sting out of the SupersPort: I
got a Sky Valet garment bag, the kind that
turns itself into a sort of luggage cart.
The SupersPort sits nicely on the little
pop-out plastic briefcase holders. It's
really easy to get around airports with
that combination, and it sure came in
handy standing in the 45-minute taxi line
at the Las Vegas airport.
Anyway, I was eager to get the Z88 as
a second computer. It's light enough to
fit in the bag with the SupersPort, then
be carried around to meetings as a note¬
book; and I did that, using it to take a lot
of COMDEX notes. I did have to be care¬
ful never to use a tab, but what the heck.
Unfortunately, all those notes have
vanished.
The Z88 is supposed to save your
stuff, even if you merely turn the ma¬
chine off. The PC-8201 does that. So
does the Model 100.
Alas, the Z88 doesn't really do that.
continued
132 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
"TOPSPEED EARNS A
ION."
Kent Porter, Dr. Dobbs Journal
pl„.7 bpSpeed is surety one of the
finest new products introduced to
date in the PC arena . , .DDJ doesn 't
give unqualified raves very often,
but there's no question about it in
this case; JPl’s TopSpeed Modida-2
is first- rate’.’
Kent Pbrter
Dr. Dobbs Journal
"3 PI Modula-2 looks like another
classic in the making. It generates
code as good as or better than lead¬
ing C compilers and the program¬
ming environment is a genuine
pleasure to use V
Dick Pountain
BYTE Magazine
August s88, pg. ESlS-3
F7 liked all of the hard-disk space
that n os recovered after I deleted
my BORLAND . MICROSOFT, and
LOGITECH compilers, because
with TopSpeed Modula-2 all the rest
are obsolete! '
Robert D. Randall
Donnelley Marketing
in Inland and Europe contact:
Jensen &. Partners UK Lid., 63 Clcrkenwdt
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Compiler Kil: £59.95, TcchKii £34.95, VID
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The successor of Pascal: JPI TopSpeed™ Modula-2 produces
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Debug with VID: The easy-to-use, source-level debugger.
Single-step and trace through source in multiple modules.
Examine and modify all variables in symbolic form, includ¬
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The Compiler Kit includes: High-speed optimizing compiler (3,000-5,000
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Circle 118 on Reader Service Card
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power without complexity
Sieve benchmark measured by the
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Compiler Kit $99.95
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TopSpeed Lind TechKit are trademarks of Jensen
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Circle 183 on Reader Service Card
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CHAOS MANOR
You must explicitly save your Pipedream
files if the machine is to be off for more
than a few minutes. Saving isn't easy: the
software is extremely awkward, and it
requires paging through a number of
menus. Although there's a keyboard
command that will bring up the “Save
File” menu, even after you learn it, you
then have to type in the darned filename
every time; it won't default to the last one
you used, even though you have not
changed documents. Because it's awk¬
ward, I didn’t use it. My fault, I guess;
but I didn't, so when I got home, every
one of the Pipedream files I’d made at
COMDEX had vanished. Worse than
that, the machine had dearly managed to
reset itself: even the date was wrong.
I don’t know if that was the X-ray ma¬
chine at the airport (neither the Super-
sPort nor the PC-8201 seems to mind
those security systems) or that unsaved
files just go away after a while (which is
what I suspect), but the fact is that all the
work Fd done with the Z88 is gone, and
that doesn't put me in a mood to be par¬
ticularly friendly about the machine.
I still have it, and I’ll take it with me
on my next trip, which will be to Hawaii.
It seems that Freeman Dyson was to be
the banquet speaker at a conference on
Grand Challenges to Computational Sci¬
ence, and he'll be unable to make it, so
they’ve chosen me as his replacement.
I’ve been walking on air since they told
me; in my book, Mr. Dyson is one of the
10 most interesting people I ever met,
and I find it enormously flattering to be
thought in the same league with him.
Anyway, the Z88 will go with me, and
FI! be very careful not to use tabs, and to
explicitly save all my files; and we’ll see
if my attitude changes. I sure do like the
small size and quiet keyboard.
Ezekial
The Ezekial contest— what should I do
with my original Z8Q Com pu Pro— pro¬
duced a large number of letters. I’ll pub¬
lish some of them, and I’ll be sending
congratulations to many other letter
writers.
It turns out that the Smithsonian Insti¬
tution does indeed want old Zeke as part
of their history of computing display.
They’ll keep him running, and people
can actually tweak him. Given Compu-
Pro’s domination of the S-100 market,
they wanted a Godbout/CompuPro/Via-
syn system anyway, and Zeke was about
the best known of those.
Most of the other suggestions had to do
with worthy causes. I’m sympathetic to
that argument, but old Zeke is not only
continued
134 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 84 on Reader Sendee Card
You No Longer Have to Share the
Lower 640K With Your Debugger
Periscope I’s new board uses ZERO memory in the
lower 640K. Yet it has plenty of room to safely store
all debugging information, like symbols, as well as the
powerful Version 4 software.
Periscope's hardware adds
the power to solve the really
tough debugging problems.
The break-out switch lets you
break into the system any time.
You can track down a bug
Instantly, or just check
what's going on, without
having to reboot or power
down and back up. That's
really useful when your
system hangs! The switch is
included with Periscope t,
Periscope U, and Periscope III,
Periscope 1 has a NEW board
with 512K of write- protected RAM, user-expandable to 1MB, for the Periscope software,
symbol tables, and all related debugging information. Normal DOS memory
(the lower 640 K) is thus totally freed up lor your application, and Periscope
is protected from being overwritten by a run away program. The new
board's footprint is only 32 K, so you can use it in PC, AT, and 386 systems
with EGA/VGA and EMS boards installed (not possible with the previous
56K board). It can also be used with Periscope 111 to provide additional
write -protected memory
Periscope III has a board with 64K of write protected RAM to store the
Periscope software and as much additional information as will fit. AND...
The Periscope IH board adds another powerful dimension to your
debugging. Its hardware breakpoints and real-time trace buffer let you
track down bugs that a software-oriented debugger would lake too long
to find, or can't find at all!
The NEW Periscope i
memory boaict keeps alt debugging
Tn formal ion out of ihe lower 640K. Can be used in
PCs. m. and 386s wilri both EGA / VGA and EMS boards
installed. The Periscope break out switch enables you to
recover from a hung system. Included with Models Ul, and III.
The Periscope III hard ware -breakpoint board captures information in real-rime, so you'll rind bugs trial can't be
lound with a soltware-based debugger.
What’s New in Periscope
Version 4:
* View local symbols from Microsoft C
f Version 5)
* Debug Microsoft windows a ppl icaiitms
* Set breakpoints in PUNK overlays
* Improved source level support
* Monitor variables in a Which window
* 81)386 debug register support
* Debug using a dumb terminal
* PS/2 watchdog timer support
* Use mixed-case symbols
* Set breakpoints on values of Rags
* Much more!
■ Periscope I includes a NEW full- length
board with 512K of write-protected RAM;
(user- expandable to 1MB); break-out
switch; software and manual for S795
■ Periscope II includes break-out switch;
software and manual for SI 75.
■ Periscope II-X includes software and
manual (no hardware) for S 145 .
■ Periscope Ell includes a full-length
board with 64 K of write-protected RAM,
hardware breakpoints and real-time trace
buffer; break- out switch; software and
manual. Periscope 111 for machines run¬
ning up to 10 MHz writh one wait-state is
S 1 395 . Plus the new Model I board, 11995.
Due to the volatility of RAM costs, prices on board
models are subject to change without notice.
REQUIREMENTS: IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2,
80386 or dose compatible (Periscope ill
requires hardware as well as software compat¬
ibility thus will not work on PS/2 or 80386
systems); DOS 2.0 or later; 64K available
memory (128K at installation time); one disk
drive; an 80- column monitor.
Periscope's software is solid, comprehensive, and
flexible *
U helps you debug just about any kind of program you can write . . thoroughly and
efficiently
Periscope’s the answer for debugging dev ice -drivers, memory-resident, non -DOS, and
interrupt-driven programs. Periscope works with any language, and provides source and/or
symbol support for programs written in high-level languages and assembler.
Call us with your questions. Well be happy
to send you free information or help you de¬
cide on the model that best fits your needs
Order Your Periscope,
Toll-Free, Today!
800-722-7006
MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED
David Nanian, President of Underware, Inc.
(of BRIEF fame) says this about the new
Periscope Version 4:
"Periscope has always been an unbelievable
assembler-level debugger. Version 4 has
turned it into a terrific source-level debugger
as well. Aside from major enhancements like
the source-level improvements, all the little
changes make a really big difference, too. For
instance, symbol lookups and disassemblies
art? noticeably faster, and highlighting the
registers that have changed really makes life
easiet. Once again, Periscope has raised the
industry standard for debuggers!"
Periscope software &
250+ page manual
The
Periscope
Company, Inc.
1107 PEACHTREE ST. • PLAZA LEVEL
ATLANTA, GA 30361 * 404 /875-8080
Circle 256 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 135
Circle 217 on Reader Service Card
BRIEF Users:
Now you can have fast
compilation AND an integrated,
productive environment.
Over 5,000 of you were forced to
make sacrifices to use BRIEF, The
Programmer's Editor. Advanced com-
pilers and new programming environ¬
ments, like Turbo C and QuickBASIC,
took up so much RAM that BRIEF
could not fit in the same 640k.
If you wanted to retain BRIEF'S
uniquely powerful features1 while
working with larger programs, you
had to sacrifice speed and continuity.
Instead of a tight Edit-Compile-Edit
loop, you had to slog through an obso¬
lete Edit-Exit-Compile-Exit-Edit loop.
Now you no longer have to
make that sacrifice.
You can enjoy the features1 that
have made BRIEF the best-selling
and the best regarded5 programmer's
editor without sacrificing environ¬
ment integration.
Version 2.1 of BRIEF can he
swapped in and out with a
single keystroke — allowing
immediate compilation with
even the largest compilers;
Microsoft C5.0, QuickC,
Turbo C, Lattice C, dBXL,
FoxBASE+ vB.O, Clipper, etc.
CHAOS MANOR
1 For example: real multi-level Undo (not
simply Undelete), flexible windowing,
unlimited file size, unlimited number ot
simultaneous files, automatic language
sensitive indentation.
a For example:
"The quintessential programmer’s editor.” —
Dr. Dobb's Journal “Right out of the box.
it's a versatile, extremely powerful editor that
handles most any programming task with
aplomb." — Cbwrjiittef Language "Simple to
learn and use and extremely sophisticated.
Strongly reciommcnded." — PC Magazine
"Not only the best programmer's text editor
I’ve ever seen, but it is also a tour de force in
the way it was conceived anCimplemonted/’—
Computer world "So far surpasses users'
expectations that it is revolutionary." —
MicroTi mes Magazine "BRIEFistruiy
outstanding." — Microsoft Systems Journal
Current BRIEF Users:
Call Ann for details on 4 other important
enhancements. Registered users of versions
2.0 or 2,0*1 update for only $35.
Haven’t tried BRIEF yet?
BRIEF retails for $195, Call Ann today
for a no-risk, 60 -day trial with a full,
money -back guarantee.
Call toll-free today
800-821-2492
^Solution
.Systems
S41 Street, Suite 410
South Weymouth, MA 02190
617-337-0963
pretty old, he wasn't all that standard as a
CP/M system to begin with; he really
was state of the art. It takes a fair amount
of expertise to keep him running; and
few (I think none) of the worthy causes,
such as a school on a Native American
reservation, would have that capability.
Bill Godbout would try to support Zeke
(he's still supporting ancient 2 SO sys¬
tems), but that wouldn't be simple if
Zeke were being used by people who
didn’t understand him, and especially if
he were at a remote and unsophisticated
location.
It was no easy decision, but I'm going
to let the Smithsonian have old Zeke. I
think he'll be happy there. It's pretty
dumb to be this sentimental about a ma¬
chine, but I certainly am. Farewell, old
friend. I'll come see you sometimes.
Winding Down
Fm out of space, and I haven't even got
started good. At COMDEX both Atari
and Commodore showed new stuff. The
Amiga has a new Unix configuration that
I can't wait to try out; one of the high
points of COMDEX was watching Dr,
Henri Rubin demonstrate upcoming
Amiga technology. Formidable! Atari
Items Discussed
APX-3200 . . . .
....$2675
Peter Norton Computing, Inc.
Maximum Storage
2210 Wilsh ire Blvd., Suite 186
5025 Centennial Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90403
Colorado Springs, CO 80919
(213) 391-2000
(719) 531-6888
Inquiry 1029,
Inquiry 1024.
Logic Gem . . . . . ,
..$198
Convertibles
Sterling Castle Software
for desk accessory or
702 Washington St., Suite 174
HyperCard . . .
.,.$59.95
Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
for both . . . .
...$74.95
(213) 306-3020
GTA
Inquiry 1030,
815 Princess Ave.
Vancouver, BC
Peabody . . .
. $100
Canada V6A 3E5
Copia International, Ltd,
(604) 255-8077
1964 Richton Dr.
Inquiry 1025.
Wheaton, IL 60187
(312) 665-9830
DESQview 386 . . .
..$189.90
Inquiry 1031,
Quarterdeck Office Systems
150 Pico Blvd.
TianMa . . , .
..$695
Santa Monica, CA 90405
As i acorn
(213) 392-9851
2761 McCollPL
Inquiry 1026.
Victoria, BC
Canada V8N 5Y8
Flicker Master . .
...$17.95
(604) 477-7829
TSR Hutchinson Co,
Inquiry 1032,
1 10 West Arrowdale
Houston, TX 77037
Visual Edge . . . . .
..$695
(713) 448-6143
Intel Corp.
Inquiry 1027.
3065 Bowers Ave.
Santa Clara, CA 95051
GRASP .
..,...$149
(408) 765-8080
Paul Mace Software, Inc.
Inquiry 1033.
400 Williamson Way
Ashland, OR 97520
Z88 .
(503) 488-2322
Cambridge North America
Inquiry 1028.
615 Academy Dr,
Northbrook, IL 60062
Instant Access. . .
.... $100
(312) 564-5512
Norton Guides .
$69 each
Inquiry 1034,
Norton Utilities 4.5
standard . .
.... $100
advanced . , .
. $150
136 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
CHAOS MANOR
has a lot of nifty new stuff as well. Both
computers can use transputers to speed
up very large visual displays. I was enor¬
mously impressed with both machines;
for reasons I haven’t time to go into, I
think the Amiga has improved even
faster than the Atari, but both are defi¬
nitely worth watching. Each has a shot at
being a serious rival to the Sun worksta¬
tion at half the cost.
On that score, I’m supposed to get a
new Sun386i in the next few weeks. I told
Sun to keep the total list cost of what they
send to below $20,000. That’s still steep
for the average BYTE reader, but at least
it isn’t out of sight; you can pay a good
fraction of that for an all-up Mac II or a
PS/2 Model 80.
I ought to mention Flicker Master,
which is a screen cover that you Velcro
over your Amiga monitor; it reduces the
flicker from interlaced mode something
wonderful. We’ve had one on my Amiga
for a couple of weeks, and I wouldn’t be
without it.
I’ve got a whole bunch of animated
displays built up from GRASP, Paul
Mace’s screen utility program; indeed,
GRASP seems to have spawned a whole
new category of consultants, like, for ex¬
ample, Robert Hurt’s Trebor Truh Pro¬
ductions (2284 Almaden Rd., San Jose,
CA 95125, (408) 723-0931), which puts
together high-quality presentations built
up from GRASP . If you have good artists
in-house, get GRASP for them; but if you
don’t have artists, you can still get pro¬
fessional-quality presentations with out¬
fits like Trebor Truh. Then you can pre¬
sent them with Traveling Software’s
color gizmo that sits on top of your View-
Graph projector and flashes up what’s on
your screen.
There’s more, but I’m really out of
space. The book of the month is by
Charles Murray, In Pursuit of Happiness
(Simon and Schuster, 1988); this may be
the most important book published last
year.
COMDEX was exhausting, but fun. I
sure like these little machines. ■
Jerry Pournelle holds a doctorate in psy¬
chology and is a science fiction writer
who also earns a comfortable living writ¬
ing about computers present and future .
Jerry welcomes readers * comments and
opinions. Send a self-addressed, stamped
envelope to Jerry Pournelle, c/o BYTE,
One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough,
NH 03458. Please put your address on
the letter as well as on the envelope. Due
to the high volume of letters, Jerry cannot
guarantee a personal reply. You can also
contact him on BIX as “jerryp. ”
Exxon
25
Standard Oil (Ohio)
49
Consolidated Foods
2
General Motors
26
AT&T Technologies
50
Lockheed
3
Mobil
27
Boeing
51
Georgia-Pacific
4
Ford Motor
28
Dow Chemical
52
Monsanto
5
29
Allied
53
W.R. Grace
m
Texaco
30
Eastman Kodak
54
Signal Companies
7
E.l. du Pont
31
Unocal
55
Anheuser-Busch
8
Standard Oil (Ind.)
32
Goodyear
56
Nabisco Brands
9
Standard Oil of Cal.
33
Dart & Kraft
mm
Johnson & Johnson
10
General Electric
34
Westinghouse Elec.
E5
Coastal
11
Gulf Oil
35
Philip Morris
59
Raytheon
12
Atlantic Richfield
36
Beatrice Foods
60
Honeywell
13
Shell Oil
ffa
Union Carbide
61
Charter
14
Occidental Petroleum
Ei
Xerox
General Mills
15
U S. Steel
39
Amerada Hess
TRW
16
Phillips Petroleum
40
Union Pacific
64
Caterpillar Tractor
17
Sun
41
General Foods
65 Aluminum Co. of Amer. |
18
United Technologies
42
McDonnell Douglas
66
Sperry
19
Tenneco
43
Rockwell Int.
Gulf & Western Ind.
20
ITT
44
PepsiCo
Continental Group
21
Chrysler
El
Ashland Oil
69
Bethlehem Steel
22
Procter & Gamble
El
General Dynamics
70
Weyerhaeuser
23
R.J. Reynolds Ind.
47
3M
71
Ralston Purina
24
Getty Oil
48
Coca-Cola
72
Colgate-Palmolive
27 million
Americans can’t read.
And guess who pays the price.
While American business is trying to stay competitive with foreign companies, it’s paying an
added penalty. The penalty of double-digit illiteracy.
Believe it or not, 27 million American adults can’t read and write. Another 47 million are literate
on only the most minimal level. That adds up to almost one third of our entire population. . .and
probably a disturbing number of your employees.
What does illiteracy cost you? Get out your calculator. Illiterate adults make up 50%-75% of
our unemployed. Every year they cost us an estimated $237 billion in lost earnings. They swell
our welfare costs by $6 billion annually and diminish our tax revenues by $8 billion.
Illiteracy costs you through your community, too. It robs the place where you work and live of
its resources. It undermines the potential of the people who make your products and the people
who buy them. No dollar figure can be assigned to this. But over the years, this may be the
costliest loss of all.
What can your company do about this? It can join in local efforts to fight illiteracy. It can
volunteer company dollars and facilities for better school and tutorial programs. It can invest in a
more literate community.
The first step is to call the Coalition for Literacy at 1-800-228-8813 or fill out the coupon be¬
low. Do it today. You may find it’s the greatest cost-saving measure your company has ever taken.
A literate
America
isagood
investment.
Coalition for Literacy
- ,
□ I want my company to join the fight agamst illiteracy
Please send brochure with additional information
□ We want to discuss funding the Coalition for Literacy
Please have a representative contact me
Name _ _
Title _ _ — - I
Company - - - I
Address - - |
City _ — State _ Zip -
Phone _
Please return to Coalition for Literacy
Business Division
PO Bo* 81826
Lincoln. NE 6850 1 1826
_ i
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 137
AW. . .WHAT THE HECK!
The first question asked by many people is, “Why is DesignC AD 3-D priced
so low?” The answer? After developing DesignCAD 3-D we were unable to
decide how the product should be priced. We consulted experts. We used
the finest spreadsheets on the market. We took employee polls. We asked
our lawyers and accountants for their opinion. We even asked our Mothers,
Wives, and childhood Sweethearts! Finally in the greatest American
Tradition, we said, “Aw . . . What the Heck! Let's see the other guys beat this
price!" DesignCAD 3-D sells for $299 complete. No add-ons, nothing else to
buy!
DesignCAD 3-D is a complete 3-Dimensional CAD system. It offers most, if
not all, the features found on programs costing more than $3000! In fact,
PC Magazine says, “For a low-cost, self-contained 3-D package Design-
CAD’s range of features steals the show. The package offers more than
adequate features for a wide range of professionals and hobbyists alike.”
Once again, American Small Business Computers has proved that you
don’t have to spend a lot of money to get quality software. DesignCAD 3-D
provides features such as Shading, Solid Object Modeling, Hidden Line
Removal, Cross Sectioning capability, ability to output shaded drawings to
laser printers, dot-matrix printers, or pen plotters, extensive file transfer
capability, all for only S299! No other 3 -Dimensional CAD system can come
close to providing the price/performance of DesignCAD 3-D.
There is a very important reason to buy DesignCAD 3-D other than price: PERFORMANCE! DesignCAD 3-D provides complete 3-Dimensional drawing
capabilities. It’s not a “warmed-over” 2-D program. DesignCAD 3-D allows you to draw any entity in 3-D space. This means, for example, that you can draw a curve
in the shape of a spring. You can draw a circle or arc at ANY angle on ANY plane.
DesignCAD 3-D allows up to 4 simultaneous views - any angle or perspective -on
the screen, DesignCAD 3-D also provides complex extrusions— linear, scalar,
and circular. Extensive 3-D text capabilities and auto- dimensioning are
provided, at no extra charge, of course!
DesignCAD 3-D almost certainly is compatible with the computer system you
now own. DesignCAD 3-D supports more than 200 dot-matrix printers, at high
resolution. DesignC AD 3-D supports more than 80 plotters, and most digitizers,
mice, and graphics adapters available for “PC and PC Compatible” systems.
Shaded and wireframe models can be output to the printer or plotter Y OU own.
DesignCAD 3-D provides the capability to read drawings from most other CAD systems (DesignC AD/ ProDesign II, AutoCAD's DXF, Hewlett Packard's HPGL,
and IGES). DesignCAD 3-D will also write GE, and POSTSCRIPT files. This file exchange utility is included at no extra charge, of course.
DesignCAD 3-D does not require expensive graphics adapters and monitors - even shading can be done on ordinary displays, such as the Enhanced Graphics
Adapter (EGA), Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) and Hercules Monochrome Adapter. DesignCAD also supports many of the ultra high resolution graphics
adapters, with more hardware being supported daily.
However, the best reason to buy DesignCAD 3-D is not the low price. It’s not the outstanding performance. It’s not the extensive hardware compatibility. The best
reason to buy DesignCAD 3-D is for its amazing ease of use!
What else do you need to know about DesignCAD 3-D? Only this: “Included at No Extra Charge.” What is included at no extra charge? EVERYTHING! $299
BUYS IT ALL!
DesignCAD 3-D
Oh yes, we also market a 2-Dimensional version of DesignCAD 3-D with special drafting and design functions. Can they work
together? Naturally ... Our Mothers, Wives, and childhood Sweethearts would see it no other way! The price?...
$299, of course!
How do you get one? See your local computer store or dealer, or contact:
To quote PC Magazine . . .
“DesignCAD 3-D, the latest feature- packed, low-cost CADD package from American Small
Business Computers, delivers more bang per buck than any of its low-cost competitors and threatens
programs costing ten times as much. ”
V/American
Small Business Computers, Inc.
327 So. Mill Street • Pryor, OK 74361
Phone: (918) 825-4844 Fax: 01-918-825-6359
Telex: 9102400302
Write or phone us for FREE DEMO DISK and information on DesignCAD 3-D and DesignCAD 2-D products.
138 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989 Circle 14 on Reader Service Card
EXPERT ADVICE
Integrated software,
special-purpose
pseudocomputers,
and software that can
guide your next
career move
I ntegrated software has gotten a bad
rap over the years, largely because
some of the most prominent exam¬
ples of the genre failed to live up to
both the claims of the manufacturers and
the expectations of the users. Anyone
who has watched this scene for the past 5
or 6 years will remember Ovation, which
was to be the ultimate integrated soft¬
ware package of which we'd all been
dreaming. Unfortunately, it turned out
to be an elaborate hoax; after a lot of
hoopla and media attention, the product
and the company behind it went up in a
puff of smoke.
There was VisiON, the slowest win¬
dowing environment ever marketed.
Context MBA, running under the p-Sys-
tem, flopped while trying unsuccess¬
fully to become the major competition to
Lotus 1-2-3* In more recent software his¬
tory, there was the pitiful rise, rapid de¬
scent, and eventual mercy killing of
Modern Jazz on the Macintosh,
The list goes on and on. Products that
have achieved modest success have done
so in the face of contempt from all the
gurus, who have maintained that the in¬
dividual modules of any integrated soft¬
ware package could never rival the power
and functionality of stand-alone pro¬
grams. That criticism is still leveled to¬
day, almost as a reflex, at any product
that calls itself integrated*
Rubbish, The fact is that while other
software has been improving steadily,
integrated software has improved as
APPLICATIONS PLUS ■ Ezra Shapiro
New Friends
and Old
well While the experts weren’t looking,
a number of programs have established
themselves quite solidly in the market¬
place. Think of AppleWorks, the Smart
series, Microsoft Works on both the IBM
PC and the Mac, SideKick Plus, and
Framework 111* All are excellent, and all
have developed loyal followings.
And don't forget that the definition of
“integrated" has also changed signifi¬
cantly. Lotus 1-2-3 was labeled an inte¬
grated package when it was first released
because it combined the capabilities of a
spreadsheet, database, and graphics pro¬
gram. By that standard, almost all soft¬
ware available currently would fit under
the integrated umbrella* What would you
call a word processor that was a text edi¬
tor, formatter, spelling checker, thesau¬
rus, outliner, calculator, file conversion
utility, mailing-list manager, filing sys¬
tem, and desktop publishing package
rolled into one? A few years back, we
would have said it was an integrated
whizbang; today, it's just an average
word processor. We've come to take inte¬
gration for granted. Where do you draw
the line?
There's something in me that still
yearns for the perfect integrated soft¬
ware package, designed as such from the
ground up, rather than by patching func¬
tionality into another paradigm. I want to
have the computerized equivalent of a
Swiss army knife. Operating systems
and many stand-alone programs have be¬
come so cumbersome that I see inte¬
grated software as the best way to achieve
consistency and simplicity in my work
environment* I don’t know if Til ever
find what I'm after; perhaps my needs
are so personal that they can’t be met by
any commercial product. I choose to go
on hoping.
Once More with Framework
I got started thinking about integrated
software because Fve been working with
Framework III and a Canon Cat for the
continued
ILLUSTRATION; DAN REED © 1989
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 139
Circle 248 on Reader Service Card
90% of the
world are
still waiting.
What the hell
are those
importers
doing?
Prtoter Buffer Inside cable.
For the average user, most buffers
are too complicated. So we
designed a buffered cable with 64K
or 256K inside.
Just a cable. As easy to use. Nearly
as inexpensive.
Battery- operated daU butter
Up to 12SK with parallel or
RS232'inpul, will hold data for as
long as 3 years. Record and play as
often as yon like. Carry data to a
printer or to another computer.
Share your printer.
Forget these boxes that occupy a
lot of your desk space, Forget the
times when you had to switch
manually. Wc have a cable that
allows two computers to share one
printer automatically,
Thai's what T-s witches should
look like!
For iBM-cornpadbles. 2 printers to
one computer. Complete set inch
all cables and a small switch-box.
lust i cable. No bulky box.
Sd
Wjf
a
PF
m
Isolating line drivers
If a line driver is not optically
isolating, you might face problems
arising from different mains
supplies. Thai's why our
R5 232-drivers are 100& isolated
up to 1,000 volts.
Data Isolators
Transients on the mams supply or
electrostatic*! discharges can cause
erroneous data transmissions and
even destruction of computers. We
offer optical isolators up to SOW.
Terminal bus.
Connect up to 16 terminals to one
2- wire bus. Save installation costs
and gain flexibility and case of use.
Terminal- Bus- Adaptors includes
IkV optically isolated line drivers.
Interfaces.
We have a complete line of
Interfaces: 20mA, Atari 130,
C64/12S, Centronics, IEEE488,
RS232, RS422, RS423 and RS485.
(The fellow mjj art rcgtifiercd fridenurki:
Allri, 04, C12B, Cintron*.. IBM)
ft
i
Uk —
|M'
. 1 t—i;* ht„ It
Austria :
Denmark:
France:
-SlTiftapMjre;
Swliacrland:
USAs
Bute, Wien
J*[£c, Spentrup
Ned, Striusbwrg
Ovencas T iaJe
WeberACo, Zfciich
Tcctnju, L. A.
0222-9505410
06479 m
(88) 623752
733-45T7
019302003
(B183 2853121
Manufacturer and Exporter:
wiesemann &
theis gmbh
MTKROCOMPUTERTECHNIK
%
wlnchenbacHstr. 3-5
d-5600 wuppertal 2
wesi-germnny
phone;
(flex:
fax:
++ 49-202-505077
859 U S6
++ 49-202-5 11050
APPLICATIONS PLUS
past month, two radically different ap¬
proaches to the question of integration, I
have been a loyal booster of Framework
ever since I saw it some months before its
acquisition by Ashton-Tate, I liked it
then and I like it now, and the $695 price
tag still gets you one of the best bargains
in the software business.
T
I he Canon
Cat is perfect for
someone who needs
industrial-strength
editing and record
keeping but doesn ' t
require a full-blown
computer system.
Within a character-oriented window-
ing environment that looks a lot like the
Systems Application Architecture inter¬
face (though it's largely incompatible
with IBM's guidelines), you get a word
processor, spreadsheet, database, com¬
munications module, and an outliner that
also serves as the organizing tool with
which to link documents of different
types. Framework III is a good choice
for anyone with a limited budget who
isn't afraid of real power.
However, perhaps the biggest change
from Framework II to Framework III is a
repositioning of the product in Ashton¬
Tate's marketing scheme, which should
tell you a great deal about what I think of
the upgrade. The company is now calling
Framework “decision support soft¬
ware," whatever that means, I guess
touting Framework's all-around power
hasn't yielded large-enough sales to keep
Ashton-Tate happy, so the company is
now yammering about Framework's
ability to get you lots of different types of
information at once, so you'll have all the
facts you need at your fingertips. In that
sense, the product is no different from its
predecessors- You do get a large number
of nice new touches, but if you haven’t
been seduced by earlier versions, Frame¬
work III has nothing magical enough to
make you change your mind.
Every module has been improved. The
word processor now boasts a standard
ruler line with tab stops and all the usual
stuff, so you have to resort to FRED,
Framework's arcane programming lan¬
guage, only In dire emergencies. The ex¬
cellent spelling checker has gained a
companion thesaurus. The spreadsheet
features sectional recalculation, so you
don't have to wait for every cell to be up¬
dated if you don’t need to.
The database is vastly improved, to the
point where it’s quite usable; in earlier
versions, there was no easy way to spec¬
ify field formats, so a ZIP code or an ad¬
dress that started with a numeral entered
without a leading space was interpreted
as a formula. The communications mod¬
ule has added more protocols and func¬
tion keys linked to specific entries in the
dialing directory. An optional package
gives you electronic mail on a network.
Oh yesT you also get selectable color and
official mouse support. And everything
seems a tad faster than before.
Some of the old problems remain, and
one new one has been added, Framework
III occupies well over 2 megabytes of
disk space, so it’s difficult to run without
a hard disk drive and thus unsuitable for
many laptops, FRED is probably the
most difficult macro language around.
Figuring out how to link files for output
is no mean feat without cracking the
manual. You can't add to the dialing di¬
rectory without running the installation
program. You've heard all this before.
The new problem is one on which mine
might be a minority viewpoint. It used to
be that if Framework encountered a
blank cell in the spreadsheet or field in
the database, it would give an error mes¬
sage when calculating. I thought this was
a pretty good safety check, but it's not
the way Lotus 1-2-3 does it. Framework
III now treats nulls as if they were zeros,
in the Lotus fashion, and computes re¬
sults even if you've left something out.
Phooey*
On the whole, the enhancements to
Framework strike me as improvements
to an already solid product, but not
enough to cause a Framework II user to
spring for an upgrade. I was no more im¬
pressed with the program than I was the
last time I looked at it- Is that damning
with faint praise? I'm not sure.
In many respects, Framework is be¬
ginning to show its age. Features that
caused my jaw to drop when I first saw
them are now fairly common in today's
software marketplace; Framework III is
no longer a revolutionary piece of soft¬
ware. I think it’s terrific, but it’s lost that
mind-boggling tingle, I honestly don't
continued
140 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
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The Spirit of Innovation.
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APPLICATIONS PLUS
Items
Discussed
Canon Cat . $995
includes Canon 180 printer
Canon U.S.A., Inc.
One Canon Plaza
Lake Success, NY 1 1042
(516) 488-6700
Inquiry 1021.
Framework III . $695
Ashton-Tate
20101 Hamilton Ave.
Torrance, CA 90502
(213) 329-8000
Inquiry 1022.
The Perfect Career . $49.95
Mindscape, Inc.
3444 Dundee Rd.
Northbrook, IL 60062
(312) 480-7667
Inquiry 1023.
know how much further the program can
be taken.
On the other hand, to anyone willing
to commit to it, Framework III offers a
flexible application development envi¬
ronment, a beautifully consistent com¬
mand set, and modules as good as many
top stand-alone programs. The fact that
I’ve begun to yawn a little shouldn’t be
construed as a discouraging sign.
Nice Kitty
With its software in ROM, the Canon Cat
has the most consistent integrated inter¬
face I have ever used. The machine is not
exactly a computer as such. It looks like a
computer— with a black-on- white moni¬
tor, keyboard, and disk drive— but it’s,
well, different.
I’ll spare you a rehash of the physical
description, which I detailed last month.
When you turn on the Cat, the screen
is set up for entering text. Just plug in a
disk and start typing. Dynamic page
breaks are automatic; one keystroke can
force a break or begin a new document.
Everything is stored as a continuous text
scroll; there’s no discrete operating sys¬
tem. You move by searching for text; two
pink keys in front of the space bar initiate
forward and backward searches, or leaps
in Cat jargon.
The cursor moves after each key¬
stroke, so you rarely have to type a full
word to reach its next occurrence. The
Leap keys also serve as left and right ar¬
row keys. To highlight for copying, dele¬
tion, or printing, leap to the start of a
block, leap to the end, then punch both
Leap keys to highlight.
Commands are triggered by Control-
key sequences, and the functions are
printed on the front of the key caps. The
“Control” key is labeled simply Use
Front. If you need help, hold down the
Use Front key, press a key called Ex¬
plain, then any key you don’t understand.
Presto— you get one of 48 help screens.
The Calc key yields a result from any
highlighted formula, which then appears
with a dotted underline. Pressing Calc
again expands to the original formula for
editing. You construct pseudospread¬
sheets by tabbing columns of numbers
and using the Calc command to enter
named variables and cell references. You
can even embed variables and references
in text paragraphs, so you’ve got the
equivalent of free-floating cells in flow¬
ing text.
Where the Cat falls down is in format¬
ting for output. Page numbers are cen¬
tered at the bottom of every page, and
there’s no facility for headers or footers.
You can leave off the number by high¬
lighting less than a full page, and you can
create macros that insert headers or foot¬
ers onto pages, but it’s really kind of
primitive. Jef Raskin, whose team at In¬
formation Appliance designed the Cat,
points out that it doesn’t substitute for a
computer. The Cat isn’t intended for
multicolumn page layout, shop-floor
data analysis, or multiuser access. It’s
fine for basic text, simple spreadsheets,
communications, free-form databases,
and the like.
Recommendations? The Cat is perfect
for someone who needs industrial-
strength editing and record keeping but
doesn’t require a full-blown computer
system. If you’re willing to invest a little
time and you’re capable of throwing out
your notions of what constitutes “power
computing,” get a Cat for yourself. It’s
as close to perfect integration, on a small
scale, as I’ve encountered to date.
When I Grow Up
Every month or two, I receive the latest
batch of games from Mindscape, which
usually get thrown into a box in the ga¬
rage and forgotten. Because it arrived
with two awful-looking shoot- ’em-ups,
I nearly missed The Perfect Career
(Mindscape, $49.95) and heaved it into
the box with the rest. That would have
been a major mistake, as it is anything
but a game. It is an MS-DOS program
designed to aid in the process of career
counseling. You use it to match your in¬
terests and qualifications with potential
employment categories.
The Perfect Career offers two com¬
plete testing and evaluation units, one for
high school students with no professional
experience, and one for adults with more
knowledge of real-world abilities. In
either case, you rank an extensive list of
job situations on a 1 to 3 scale for interest
and/or skill. The program derives an as¬
sessment of how your expectations match
up to your answers, and it suggests a list
of possible careers. I took the adult test,
and I was amazed at how accurately the
program pegged me; all the jobs it gener¬
ated were things I’d enjoy doing. As an
example, the program was canny enough
to list “college or university president”
as a choice but not “college or university
professor,” which meshes squarely with
my impatience for teaching.
I then tried it on someone else, with
somewhat less satisfactory results; the
program produced only a terse list of the
most obvious possibilities. When I asked
my guinea pig about the process, she ad¬
mitted she had given top scores to those
things she liked and knew she could do
and bottom scores to everything else.
The Perfect Career then told her, natu¬
rally, what she already knew. I can’t
blame the program; the tests need to be
taken with a lot of thought and a definite
seriousness of purpose.
The program was developed by James
C. Gonyea, director of the New England
Center for Career Development. He also
wrote a brief but helpful manual that
sketches a systematic approach to choos¬
ing a career that goes well beyond the
simplistic nature of the testing software.
The Perfect Career is a complete pack¬
age, and it makes an intelligent aid for
students looking for career directions
and adults who are thinking about mak¬
ing a switch.
Don’t expect The Perfect Career to
tell you exactly what you should do with
your life; only you can make that deci¬
sion. But the program can give you some
insight into your desires and aptitudes
and help you narrow your focus. It’s no
magic bullet, but it’s pretty slick. I rec¬
ommend it. ■
Ezra Shapiro is a consulting editor for
BYTE. You can contact him on BIX as
“ezra. ” Because of the volume of mail he
receives , Ezra, regretfully, cannot re¬
spond to each inquiry.
Your questions and comments are wel¬
come. Write to: Editor, BYTE, One
Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH
03458.
142 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Create a high
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with no capacity
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Make no mistake. Every
bit, every byte, on every
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The Spirit of Innovation.
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BASF
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You can extend your multi -scan range
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This means that, at the 48-50 kHz
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The FLEXSCAN 9070 takes advantage
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The FLEXSCAN 9070 provides a
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1024 dots x 768 lines Graphics (Non -interlace)
AutoCAD
Also, for your convenience, all
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The FLEXSCAN 9070 is compatible
with a wide range of IBM, Apple, and
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FLEXSCAN
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• IBM VGA (PS/2), 9514 /A, PGC. EGA
compatible and CAD/CAE use.
• Apple Mac. H and SuperMac Spectrum
compatible
• Max. 1280 dots x 800 lines high resolution
• 1024 dots x 768 lines display on
Non -Interlace signal delivers flicker-free
high -res graphics
•20kHz to 50kHz horizontal scan automatic
adjustment. 50 Hz to 8QHz vertical scan
automatic adjustment
•16 inch, 0,31mm dot pitch and newly
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Specifications are subject to change without notice.
APPLE. Mjtc.rrtmih □ an rjl Art*, Ik ARTIST. ARTIST t ARTIST i&. ABTiST lOm mtt of Con&Di SrX«fT» Inc IBM IBM
PC. *T. AT *nd PS/? pf HlATUkoml Buajnou MacA.nw Cafpoinflioni SupiwMac .[ a mpmui. (A SHWtV T«;hKASGj SrpEGA
SupwVGA amt SupwYGA H-ffln ma imtvnvAi at Gr*xsj Oma&flhnn OcKJ VQA, OtW VGA-2. Tu'baEGA hi TljPoVGA .h* Tiwwki
OCfWt T«Kcle«> P«1«X4 VGA PiWwu* VGA Pk* Af>d Adw^iph EGA M* vaa*r<* Part.** SnW. nc Vwa&vr Syil^ni *1 A
■^QdbKl tiBdamart, of Paradiso Ptt VEGA OtftiAn and VEGA VGA *n frwNmwr* tit VnJw- inc Mil«™ ib .1 reyiiiMnd tradwrudk ol htarheid Cog^aimja
U « til tfiHwjrwrfi. CtfWfAKii Ai«CAO fl 0 i*®"*!*^ iiAjfcmuk & Ajicripak Inc GEM n K^rrujrk &tr[ai Unwch fcic Lotus ond
I -2-- } urn iikjiiiMftd tTAdonurks at Lotus D***!*ap(r®nl Ca[KHBfl«n SvnnVGA And StotniEGA am Iradc^iniks o' li-gmj inc PLEXliCAH ii a n*Miurh pt NANAO
CORPORATION NANAO n 4 ll,<kwri*.'k ed NANAO COfiPCnATHJH
144 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 164 on Render Service Card (DEALERS: 16$)
EXPERT ADVICE
DOWN TO BUSINESS
Wayne Rash Jr.
^ Getting into
Bigger LANs
When you have a big
job, sometimes you
really do need a bigger
hammer
The solution to business connec¬
tivity is simplicity. By that, I
mean that the method you
choose should be as simple as
possible given the needs of your busi¬
ness. In my last two columns, I discussed
the possibility of sharing resources with¬
out using a local-area network at all, and
of sharing in a small area using a rela¬
tively simple LAN such as lONet. There
comes a time, though, when solutions as
simple as these won’t do the job.
As your office or department grows,
the problems associated with managing
central data storage and access to re¬
sources reach the point where a tradi¬
tional central server LAN becomes the
obvious choice. Eventually, printer
servers become overburdened and the
cable lengths required are too long to
work properly. Likewise, a peer-to-peer
network without a file server becomes
difficult to manage because individual
computers are turned off or files are
moved. This makes shared resources dif¬
ficult or impossible to find or use.
At this stage, in spite of its added com¬
plexity and cost, the file server becomes
the simpler solution. In short, it’s easier
to manage a single computer than it is to
manage dozens. Of course, a LAN can
have more than one server, but you will
still use few servers relative to the num¬
ber of workstations. Likewise, your net¬
work printers will be centrally managed,
as will other network resources, such as
communications gateways.
Covering the Floor
An example of a typical central server
LAN is one intended to serve the needs
of the employees on a single floor of a
professional services company. Say that
about 80 employees need to have access
to printers, asynchronous communica¬
tions, some common word processing
files, and electronic mail. There is some
need for database management using
dBASE III Plus. Word processing is per¬
formed using WordPerfect 4.2.
Because the employees of this com¬
pany have very flexible schedules, and
because many of them travel frequently,
a peer-to-peer network would be quite in¬
convenient if any of the shared resources
resided on any of the individual com¬
puters, since there is a virtual certainty
that many computers on that floor will be
turned off at any given time. Finally,
there is a strong move toward the Apple
Macintosh in portions of the company,
and these need to be connected as well.
What to Do?
What I’ve laid out here is a situation quite
common to many companies with a large
number of office workers. While they
may be in groups that vary in size, and
while the physical circumstances may
vary, the needs will remain. Workers
need to be connected so they can make
the best use of their available resources.
Now it’s time to make some decisions.
First, let’s consider what sort of LAN
you need, then choose LAN software,
and, finally, decide what to use for a file
server. Before I get deeply involved,
though, you need to realize that there’s
more to LAN selection than I can discuss
here. Some of these issues will be cov¬
ered in later columns.
What Sort of LAN?
There are three factors you should weigh
to determine the type of LAN you’ll use:
hardware requirements, wiring require¬
ments, and expense. You may find that
your selection of LANs is restricted be¬
cause you need Ethernet for your Macin¬
tosh or for the VAX in the basement.
continued
ILLUSTRATION: BRUCE WEINSTOCK © 1989
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 145
DOWN TO BUSINESS
Likewise, if your building is already
wired for ARCnet, you’ll probably use
that. Finally, if you have a very limited
budget, you may find that you can afford
ARCnet but not Ethernet.
Since most buildings aren’t wired for
LANs ahead of time, you may also find
yourself looking for a product that will
work with your already-installed
twisted-pair wiring. You could also find
out that you’re going to have to install
wiring, no matter what system you pick.
This factor takes on added importance,
since you may find that the cost of buying
and installing the wiring for a LAN ex¬
ceeds the entire cost of the rest of the
network.
Since most personal computer users
don’t care what LAN protocol they use,
Ethernet, ARCnet, or Token Ring, the
primary critical factors are the costs to
install the wiring and to adapt the com¬
puter to work with a network. Another
critical factor is a particular computer’s
ability to work at all with some LAN pro¬
tocols. For example, if you’re using the
Macintosh, you can use Ethernet on
some later machines such as the Mac II
and the SE. Otherwise, you have to use
the standard AppleTalk network and
find a way to integrate it.
The LAN Software
The software is the part of a LAN that
the user sees. Regardless of the hardware
and protocol involved, the user knows
that the LAN is running something like
Novell NetWare. Thus, you need to make
sure you select the LAN operating soft¬
ware with your users’ needs, as well as
their installed hardware base, in mind.
According to a BYTE survey at PC
Expo last July, the most popular network
software is Novell NetWare. That survey
showed that significantly more than half
of all users employ Novell. There are a
variety of reasons for this, not the least of
which is that Novell has written its net¬
work operating system to function with
most of the popularly available networks.
Also popular, but less common than Net¬
Ware, is 3Com’s network with its 3 +
LAN operating software.
Both of these LAN operating systems
are widely used because they make mini¬
mal demands of the user. While both re¬
quire logging onto the network and both
may require passwords, to users who
have obtained access to the network, the
file server appears to be just another disk
drive. Likewise, printing occurs just as it
would with a stand-alone computer.
Once users have learned how to work
their computers, they need a minimum of
training to use the network.
Besides supplying access to big disk
drives, LAN software typically offers a
variety of other functions. One that used
to be standard is E-mail. Currently,
LAN software companies, including
Novell and 3Com, are selling their E-
mail software separately. In the case of
Novell, because its E-mail product
needed improvement, many users bought
third-party packages.
The Server
Most companies that sell network soft¬
ware also sell file servers, although
Novell has announced that it is leaving
this portion of the business and has sold
its server line to Samsung of Korea. Basi¬
cally, the file server is a proprietary ver¬
sion of a personal computer. Usually, a
file server has some added features and
enhancements that help match it to its
dedicated role on the network. Good ex-
A Message To
Our Subscribers
From time to time we make
the BYTE subscriber list available to
other companies who wish to send our
subscribers material about their products. We
take great care to screen these companies,
choosing only those who are reputable, and
whose products, services, or information we
feel would be of interest to you. Direct mail
is an efficient medium for pre¬
senting the latest personal com¬
puter goods and services to our
subscribers.
Many BYTE subscribers ap¬
preciate this controlled use of
BYTE Magazine
Attn: Subscriber Service
P.O. Box 7643
Teaneck, NJ 07666-9866
our mailing list, and look forward to finding
information of interest to them in the mail.
Used are our subscribers’ names and addresses
only (no other information we may have is
ever given).
While we believe the distribution of this in¬
formation is of benefit to our subscribers, we
firmly respect the wishes of any subscriber
who does not want to receive
such promotional literature.
Should you wish to restrict the
use of your name, simply send
your request to the following
address.
HI
146 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 178 on Reader Service Card
DOWN TO BUSINESS
amples are the servers from 3Com that
have an AppleTalk port. This feature
allows Macs in a LocalTalk network to
be added to a 3Com LAN.
Although most LAN companies sell
file servers, you can use a personal com¬
puter as a file server if you prefer. Nor¬
mally, the machine you would select as a
file server would be an 80286- or 80386-
based IBM PC AT clone with a large, fast
hard disk drive and some extended mem¬
ory. Novell and 3Com sell versions of
their network operating software for
these machines, and they work fine in
most environments. In the example men¬
tioned earlier, an 80286 AT clone with a
300-megabyte hard disk drive has proven
entirely adequate to support the 80-per¬
son group. Had the group been using
more database management or transfer¬
ring large files, such as those generated
by a CAD system, an additional or a more
capable server would have been neces¬
sary.
Selecting a dedicated server depends
partially on the load you plan to put on it
and partially on other features that the
server must have, such as 3Com’s Apple-
Talk port. Likewise, you need to make
sure that whatever you pick for a server
will have room to support the required
circuit cards, which will include one and
possibly more network interface cards,
additional memory, possibly a copy-pro¬
tection card (although Novell has just
dropped copy protection with version
2.12), and additional communications
ports if the machine does not come with
enough. Interestingly, the choices of
server and network operating software
do not have to agree. You can run most
network operating software on an AT
clone, and you can even run Novell Net¬
Ware on a 3Com server.
Choosing Sides
You may find that either network men¬
tioned here will meet your needs and that
the dealers in your area will sell them to
you for about the same price. Now comes
the problem of selecting. At this point,
you should involve the dealer. After all,
a network that won’t work is pretty hard
to ship back to the factory, and network
manufacturers tend to encourage the in¬
volvement of their dealers. Novell, for
example, requires you to pay for service
through the factory, either through a
charge card or a service agreement. You
need to make sure that the dealer will re¬
turn to service the network and solve in¬
stallation problems, unless you have the
ability to do it yourself.
There is, of course, the important
question of compatibility. Since Novell’s
Items
Discussed
Advanced NetWare 2.12.
....$2995
NetWare 2.12 .
NetWare Requester for
....$1495
OS/2 1.0 .
Novell, Inc.
122 East 1700 S
Provo. UT 84601
(800) 453-1267
(801) 379-5900
Inquiry 981.
. $200
EtherLink network adapter ..$495
EtherLink/MC
(Micro Channel) .
EtherLink/NB
. $595
(Macintosh II) .
EtherLink Plus network
. $595
adapter .
3+ Open LAN Manager
. $895
Advanced System 1,0...
3 + Open LAN Manager
...$2995
Entry System 1.0 .
. $995
3Server 3S/400 .
3Com Corp.
3165 Kifer Rd.
Santa Clara, CA 95052
(408) 562-6400
Inquiry 982.
.$12,995
and 3Coirfs networks are highly popu¬
lar, these companies normally support
them with applications software. Less-
popular networks might not be sup¬
ported, so you have to check. The ability
to support IBM NetBIOS compatibility,
as most network operating software
does, helps in this case.
Does this look like a lot to go through?
Well, it is. Choosing and implementing a
large LAN is not a trivial process, and
it’s made more complicated by the fact
that nearly all installations are unique in
some way. ■
Wayne Rash Jr . is a consulting editor for
BYTE and a member of the professional
staff of American Management Systems,
Inc. (Arlington, Virginia). He consults
with the federal government on micro¬
computers and communications. You can
reach him on BIX as “ waynerash , ” or in
the to. wayne conference.
Your questions and comments are wel¬
come. Write to: Editor, BYTE , One
Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH
03458.
Paul Mace
SOFTWARE
h
ATTEST
/? FORM AT
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Experience has shown most hard
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disk is properly initialized for
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When the worst happens . . . and
you lose data, /7FORMAT will help
recover your disk -even from that
ultimate disaster: "Invalid Drive
Specification."
/iTEST • /ZFORMAT: for IBM PC,
XT, AT and compatible computers.
Requires 64K, DOS 1.1 or higher.
Advanced Hard Disk
Diagnostics designed by
Kolod Research . . . $89.95
Paul Mace Software , Inc .
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(503) 488-2322
(COD's, PO's add $5.00)
(Foreign orders add $10.00)
h-Tbst h- Formal is a trademark of Kolod Research Inc.
FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 147
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ISO BYTE * FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 167 on Reader Service Card for LabWind&ws*
168 for LabVlEW.
The time has come
for a portable Mac that
doesn’t strain your arms
or your credit line
I can't stand it. I've really tried hard
to like the laptops I use each week:
a Tandy 200, a Zenith Z- 1 83 , and a
Toshiba T10Q0. Despite the virtues
of each machine, they just don't go the
whole nine yards. They are either too
heavy (Zenith), have a lousy display
(Tandy), or a crammed keyboard (To¬
shiba). And they all suffer from that
most serious of failings: They aren't
Macintoshes! No version of MS-DOS or
Tandy software can fill my Mac software
void, I don't want to use these machines,
but so far, I haven't found a viable alter¬
native.
It's still a nuisance moving files from a
laptop to the Mac and back (although
Traveling Software's LapLink Mac is a
big help). But I don't want to have to
transfer files from MS-DOS to the Mac
and worry about file format- translation
problems in the process. What I really
want is to take files from my laptop and
use them directly on my home and office
machines. Since I use 8-megabyte Mac
11s as my primary personal computers
(my Sun-3 Ethernet workstation notwith¬
standing), my standard computing envi¬
ronment consists of MultiFinder running
Word 3.02, Full Write Professional LG,
More 1.1c, Excel 1.5, VersaTerm-Pro
3.0, AppleLink 2.0, 4th Dimension
1.06, FoxBASE Pius/Mac 1.1, Mac-
Scheme -HToolsmith 1.5, HyperCard
1.2, Smalltalk-80 23, and MPW 2.0. I
use some or all of this software each
week (plus some other programs). Along
with ALSoft's Master Juggler (so I can
keep a ton of desk accessories and fonts
open simultaneously, too), it's my soft¬
ware of choice. Why should 1 have to give
EXPERT ADVICE
MACINATIONS ■ Don Crabb
Hey Apple,
I Need a Laptop
Y UGirrWCHj+tT
v'SLth
/ IWG BATTERY UF£
FAST STOfcASk
V O-EAR
up ail of this just so 1 can carry a com¬
puter with me?
Believe me, I've tried the available al¬
ternatives and have not been impressed. I
used a Dynamac EL for a tew days quite
some time ago {see “Dynamac's Porta¬
ble Mac" by Peter Wayner, May 1988
BYTE). Although it's a nice machine
with a very nice screen, it's hardly a lap¬
top. The thing weighed more than the
Mac SE I’ve been lugging around on
trips. The Dynamac folks need to trim
the weight down to something closer to
single digits for it to approach laptop sta¬
tus. And it doesn't have batteries, which
can definitely cramp your computer-car¬
rying style.
Apple has been rumored to be near an¬
nouncing a laptop Mac (or Macs) for the
last year now. I, for one, am getting sick
and tired of waiting, Apple, please get on
with it and announce some snazzy lap¬
tops soon. Naturally, the laptop Mac we
all want must have lots of fast storage, a
crystal-clear screen, a great keyboard,
and an 8-hour battery life, weigh under 6
pounds, and cost under $2,000.
OK, so that’s probably a pipedream.
I'd settle for a laptop that weighed under
12 pounds, that was slim enough to carry
in my briefcase or travel bag without de¬
stroying them, and cheap enough that my
bank won't revoke my MasterCard when
I try to buy it. The battery life is negotia¬
ble, I suppose, but it has to at least be a
positive number.
It turns out that Colby Computers
(who has been making laptop Macs for a
couple of years now, by buying Mac
Pluses and cutting them up) is about
ready to ship a new laptop it calls the
WalkMac SE. It will be based on the Mac
$E motherboard, will weigh about 12
pounds, and has a backlit LCD screen
and a rechargeable battery.
Unfortunately, it's also going to cost
more than five grand ($5449). In the
wake of Apple's September 1988 price
increases, maybe that doesn't seem so
continued
ILLUSTRATION: ELIZABETH STUBBS © 1989
FEBRUARY 1 989 * BYTE 151
Circle 258 on Reader Service Card
MACI NATIONS
Items Discussed
AppleCD SC . ..$1199
Apple Computer* Inc.
20525 Mariani Ave,
Cupertino, CA 95014
(408)996-1010
Inquiry 1103.
Apple System 6*0.2
(Free from Apple dealers
if you bring your own disks)
Apple Computer* Inc.
20525 Mariani Ave.
Cupertino* CA 95014
(408) 996-1010
Inquiry 1102.
Colby WalkMac
SE,. . . $5449 and up
Colby Computers
4723 North Warren Ave.
Fresno* CA 93705
(209) 222-4985
Inquiry 1101*
Dynamac EL . . . $5895 and up
Dynamac Computer Products* Inc.
14001 East Iliff Ave,* Suite 430
Aurora* CO 80014
(303) 233-7626
Inquiry 1106*
Interactive Multimedia:
Visions of Multimedia
for Developers, Educators,
and Information Providers . $24.95
Edited by Sueann Ambron and
Kristina Hooper. Redmond* WA:
Microsoft Press* 1988.
Inquiry 1104,
Wheels for the Mind
1-year subscription (4 issues) . $12
Peter Olivieri* editor
Apple Computer, Inc*
P,0. Box 1834
Escondido* CA 92025
Inquiry 1105,
Break the 32M barrier without breaking
your wallet with EZ-DOS 4*0.
EZ-DOS 4,0 was developed by Digital
Research as an alternative DOS for PCs.
As such, EZ-DOS 4.0 allows 512 M
partitions and file/subdirectory PASSWORD
protection. On-line HELP is another user-
friendly feature.
EZ-DOS 4.0 also comes with GEM/3
Desktop, this windowing operating
environment.
( E \
EZ-DOS 4.0 . $79.00
with True BASIC .... $99.00
2001 Sales. Inc.
Carp. Headquarters
165B0 Harbor Blvd., Ste. D.
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
Tel: (714) 531-6551 Fax: (714) 531-8546
CANADA
Tel: 1416) 591-6600 Fax: (416) 591-6808
TAIWAN:
Tel: (02) 542-4575 Fax: (02) 536-3405
HONG KONG:
Tel: 5-090-3707 Fax: 5-895-6241
Deafer, Distributor & OEM inquiries welcome.
VISA and Master Card accepted
bad (OK* so it still feels bad). 1 haven't
used one yet* but Cm scheduled to get a
review unit soon. I plan to lug it with me
everywhere and use it for writing* edit¬
ing* some site consulting* and teaching
and speaking engagements* then report
back to you in a couple of months. I can
hardly wait. Maybe I'll be able to break
my Zenith /Tandy /Toshiba habit yet.
A Bug-Free System and CD-ROM
I've had the debugged and released
Apple 6,0,2 System software for a bit
more than a month now* and it's a huge
improvement over the buggy and unreli¬
able System 6.0 release. Hopefully* the
experience with 6.0 and the bug-fixing
provided by 6.0.2 will help Apple's engi¬
neers get a dean version of System 7.0
out when it ships.
While Fm on the subject of Apple* let
me talk about its CD-ROM drive* the
AppleCD SC. Fve had one of these
things sitting around my office for a few
months now, but didn’t really have the
chance to do much with it except hook it
up and make sure it works (it does). The
drive is a decent piece of work that plays
CD audio disks in addition to reading
CD-ROM data disks, It's pricey at
$1 199, but it's often discounted. Since
Fm teaching an introductory program¬
ming course (using HyperCard) for lib¬
eral arts students this quarter* it seemed
logical to pull out the AppleCD SC and
fire it up with a copy of HyperCard 1 .2 to
try it as a read-only HyperCard storage
device.
I’ve found that in and of itself, the
AppleCD SC is not going to win any
product-of-the-year awards for its tech¬
nical execution. It's just a read-only de¬
vice that happens to have a prodigious ca¬
pacity (around 650 megabytes per disk).
And it's generally slower than any Mac
hard disk Fve used* But technical prow¬
ess isn't what makes the AppleCD SC an
important product. Nope* the AppleCD
SC is important for what it can provide to
applications like HyperCard: a nearly
unlimited source of information that de¬
mands new methods of management and
new paradigms for searching, sorting*
categorizing* and displaying data.
This important point occurred to me
as I was reading the excel lent compilation
of articles published in Interactive Multi¬
media: Visions of Multimedia for Devel¬
opers, Educators * and Information Pro¬
viders, edited by Sueann Ambron and
Kristina Hooper and published by
Microsoft Press. Many of those articles
make it very clear that multimedia in¬
struction* presentations, and data storage
are no longer confined to research labs*
but are being used and refined now in
real environments* with Macs and CD-
ROM drives being an important delivery
platform.
continued
152 BYTE * FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 154 on Reader Service Curd
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Since 1 986, the MicroWay Mon op a ter has. V \ 1
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MACINATIONS
One article in that compilation, writ¬
ten by Apple’s Mike Liebhold, points out
the artificial limitations placed on the
use of CD-ROM technology. He argues
that CD-ROM software that allows for
only straight information search and re¬
trieval is missing the boat by a wide mar¬
gin. He makes the logical and technical
case for serious decision-aid software
based on CD-ROM technology.
Liebhold contends that optical disks
should be more than an archival media;
they must be linked to powerful soft¬
ware. Of course, that’s now happening
with respect to hypertext with Apple’s
own HyperCard 1.2, which supports the
AppleCD SC drive. With HyperCard as
the hypertext engine, you can create vir¬
tually any view or structure you need and
pull into these new objects the informa¬
tion (sound, graphics, and text) that is
stored on the CD-ROM disk.
You can start to explore the concepts of
CD-ROM-based hypertext applications
now with the AppleCD SC drive and the
Apple Educational CD Sampler Disk
(which is available free from many Apple
district sales offices). This disk contains
a number of HyperCard stacks and other
hypermedia programs and gives some
pretty strong hints at the processing para¬
digms that are growing out of hyperme¬
dia research.
Wheels for the Mind
The best way to stay current on develop¬
ments in multimedia and hypermedia
uses for the Mac is through the Apple
University Consortium journal called
Wheels for the Mind. Edited by Boston
College’s Peter Olivieri, it is published
quarterly and costs only $12 for a 1-year
subscription. In it, you’ll find articles
highlighting the Macintosh development
projects planned or under way at major
research schools and institutions. As an
example, most of the topics covered in
the summer 1988 issue had to do with
HyperCard, in honor of its first birthday
celebration.
The fall 1988 issue covered Mac appli¬
cations used in instructional, research,
professional, and administrative envi¬
ronments. Articles submitted for the
publication often cover Macintosh appli¬
cations and development efforts that you
won’t read about elsewhere.
In large part, some of the best software
for the Mac is in limited circulation with¬
in universities — software that you could
take advantage of if you knew about it.
Wheels for the Mind offers a good win¬
dow into that software and its availability
to non-university users. Much of the soft¬
ware (e.g., courseware, simulations sys¬
tems, specialized research products, and
extensions to popular commercial pro¬
grams) that you’ll read about in Wheels
can be purchased for less than $50 each
from the Kinkos Academic Courseware
Exchange Catalog. Stop in any Kinkos
copy shop in your area and pick up a copy
of the catalog (and get your name on the
mailing list for future copies). I highly
recommend it as a way to extend your use
of the Mac. ■
Don Crabb is the director of laboratories
and a senior lecturer for the computer
science department at the University of
Chicago. He is also a consulting editor
for BYTE. He can be reached on BIX as
tldecrabb. ”
Your questions and comments are wel¬
come. Write to: Editor , BYTE , One
Phoenix Mill Lane , Peterborough , NH
03458.
Looking for an equation builder or
multi-lingual editor for PageMaker or Ventura?
Vuwriter Link Pack provides the solution.
The Vuwriter Link Pack provides a fast multiple character set editor
plus printer and screen fonts for HP and postscript printers.
Systems are available for scientists, engineers, linguists, translators
(20+ languages) and classicists.
Contact Vuman and find out how to add character to your
Xerox-Ventura or Aldus PageMaker DTP System.
LANCO Computing Services Finland Tel: 358 18 525240
154 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 243 on Reader Service Card
NO OTHER DESKTOP
PUBLISHING SYSTEM OFFERS
V* jv
M; <
o?'~*
With the new Mannes-
mann Tally* Universal™ Publishing
System, you can practically fly.
Thanks to a Raster Image
Processor board that plugs directly
into your PC or compatible, you’ll
process your pages at a speed lim¬
ited only by the speed of your
computer. Not— as is typical— at
the speed of the printer. And you’ll
transfer ready-to-print data directly
to the printer through a video
interface at an incredible 3-million
bits per second.
So when you’re using the
PostScript* compatible interpreter,
you’ll produce a printed page
almost twice as fast as most other
systems. But that’s just ground
speed.
If you use Aldus* Page¬
Maker or Ventura Publisher* you’ll
Circle 137 on Reader Service Card ( DEALERS : 138)
■ Systems:
1 . Universal Publishing System (includes a
PostScript compatible interpreter and Docu¬
ment Description Language (DDL))
2. DDL Publishing System (DDL only).
■ Resolution: 300 x 300 dpi.
■ Emulations: Both systems include HP*
LaserJet.
■ Memory: 2 Mg.
■ Typefaces: UPS includes 35 typefaces, DDL
System includes 22 typefaces.
■ Speed: 10 pages-per-minute.
■ Dual paper cassettes standard, 250 sheets
each.
■ Dual output bins standard, 250 sheets each.
■ Manual feed handles single sheets, enve¬
lopes, transparencies, and labels.
■ Workload: 10,000 pages-per-month.
really take off. Because when you
select DDL instead of the PostScript
compatible interpreter, you’ll double
that speed again. And with full page
bitmap graphics, you can get print¬
ed output up to 17 times as fast.
So call the number below
for the name of your nearest dealer
and log in your time on the New
Mannesmann Tally Universal
Publishing System. A pilot’s license
is not required.
MANNESMANN
TALLY
MOO-8431347
Ext. 191
In Washington state, call:
206-251-5524 Ext. 191
Test results available upon request. PostScript is a registered trade¬
mark of Adobe Systems, Inc. DDL is a registered trademark of
Imagen Corp. Ventura Publisher is a registered trademark of Ven¬
tura Corp. Pagemaker is a registered trademark of Aldus Corp.
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 155
NO ADDED CHARGE ON CREDIT CARDS FOR COMPUTER & ACCESSORIES
CALL TOLL FREE: 1-800-882-2802
pjLVa _ _ FOR FAX, TYPEWRITERS & DICTATION EQUIPT.
i (€ EXECUTIVE CALL TOLL FREE: 1-800-223-7323
3 PHOTO & SUPPLY CORP. ,N N-Y- STATE CALL: 1-212-947-5290
HOURS: Mon. Tru. Thurs. 9AM Till 6PM, Fri. 9AM Till 1:30PM, Sun. 9:30AM Till 5PM, Closed On Sat.
LAPTOPS
TOSHIBA
SOLD IN STORE ONLY
T-iooo in sin
51 2K, 1-720K Disk Drive.
Supertwist LCD Display,
Weighs just 6.4 lbs.
CALL
TOSHIBA T-1200F .
TOSHIBA T-1200FB .
TOSHIBA T-1200HB .
NEW! TOSHIBA T-3100E .
TOSHIBA T-3200 .
TOSHIBA T-5100 .
ZENITH
ZENITH 184-1 . 1495.00
ZENITH 184-2 . CALL
ZENITH Supersport 286 Model 20 w/20MB
Hard Drive . 3049.90
ZENITH 286 W/40MB Hard Drive . 3449.00
DATAVUE
DATAVUE SPARK. 640K, 2-Drives. Backlit
w/JT FAX Portable . 1275.95
NEC
NEC Multispeed HD . 1959.00
LAPTOP ACCESSORIES
HOLMES 2400 Modem f/AII LaptopsCALL
WORLD PORT 2400 Baud Modem235.00
Diconix Portable Printer . 304.90
DESKTOPS
commt H
DESKPRO 286. 12MHz, 1.2 Floppy Drive.
Seagate 40MB Hard Drive (40ms)2065.00
NEW! COMPAQ 386/20E w/40MB Hard
Drive . 4749.00
NEW! COMPAQ SLT/286 Portable w/20MB
Hard Drive . Low Price
MSMRCH INC.
AST PREMIUM 286
10 MHz, 512K. 1.2 Floppy Drive.
Seagate 40MB Hard Drive (40ms)
1719.90
NEW! AST 386C w/64K Cache Memory. 20
MHz, 1MB Ram, 1.2 Floppy Drive, 40MB
Hard Drive . CALL
COMPATIBLES
IBM-XT Compatible, 1-360 Floppy Drive,
1-30MB Hard Drive . 757.00
IBM-AT Compatible, 51 2K, 1 .2 Floppy Drive,
Seagate 40MB Hard Drive (40ms)1 247.00
I APPLE COMPUTERS CALlI
PRINTERS
Panasonic^
KX-P 1 124
24 Pin, Narrow Carriage
192 CPS Draft, 63 CPS NLQ,
Tractor Feed Included
309.00
PANASONIC 1 091 i . 11
NEW! PANASONIC 1181 . <
EPSON
EPSON LX-800 . 179.00
EPSON LQ-500 . CALL
EPSON LQ-850 . 529.00
EPSON LQ-1050 . 769.00
EPSON FX-850 . 349.95
EPSON FX-1050 . 499.95
EPSON LQ-2550 . CALL
TOSHIBA (Sold In Store Only)
NEW! TOSHIBA Expresswriter 311 CALL
NEW! TOSHIBA 321SL Color . CALL
TOSHIBA 341 SL . CALL
TOSHIBA 351 SX . CALL
NEC
NEC P5200 . 525.00
NEC P5300 . 687.00
PRINTER SALE!
H P. Laserjet II w/Toner . CALL
H.P. Deskjet . CALL
STAR NX-1000 . 169.95
APPLE Imagewriter II . 439.00
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H LOGITECH
Logitech Hi-Res Mouse . 89.95
Logitech Clear Mouse . 99.00
NEW! Logitech Scanman . CALL
PARADISE VGA Professional . CALL
NEW! PARADISE VGA Plus 16. .299.90
NEW! Microsoft Mach 20 . 309.00
MICROSOFT Mouse . 99.95
ZENITH Perfect Monitor . CALL
NEC Multisync Monitor . CALL
SONY 1302 Monitor . 669.00
PLUS 20MB Card . CALL
TOSHIBA 3V2" Drive w/Kit . 89.00
INTEL 80387-20 MHz . 469.95
SOFTWARE
XY Write w/AI A Carte . 215.95
ASK SAM . 165.00
BITSREAM Fonts . CALL
XEROX Ventura Publisher 2.0. Low Price
ORACLE f/LOTUS . 119.95
NEW! Microsoft Flight Simulator. . .32.95
NEW! King Quest 4 . 29.00
PROCOM Plus . 42.95
MICROSOFT Excel 2.1 . 299.95
FORMWORK w/Fill & File . 79.00
PFS First Publisher . 69.00
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. . . .29.99
NOTA BENE 3.0 . 248.50
LUCID 3D . 67.99
Q & A . 189.00
INTUIT Quicken . 31.95
MANAGING Your Money . 115.95
TOBIAS PCnax Cut . CALL
DAC Easy Accounting 3.0 . 57.00
CHIPSOFT Turbo Tax . CALL
NOLO Will Maker . 30.95
SPINRITE . 48.99
Fastrax . CALL
FAX MACHINES
PANAFAX
UF-150 • INSTOCK
UF-250 . IN STOCK
SHARP
FO-220 . CALL FO-300 . CALL
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FO-700 . . . 1519.90 FO-800 . 2299.90
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FaxPhone 8 . 599.90
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EXPERT ADVICE
OS/2 NOTEBOOK I Mark Minasi
Electing the PM
Here's what you
need to assemble
an OS/2 workstation
that runs Presentation
Manager without
breaking the bank
I have just spent days trying to as¬
semble an OS/2 workstation to add
to my local-area network. In this
column and next month. I’ll focus
on the hardware you’ll need to work with
OS/2 version 1,1, the version with Pre¬
sentation Manager. Version LI is much
pickier about the hardware that it runs on
than version 1 .0 was. This subject should
be useful to those of you who already
have an existing machine and are won¬
dering whether or not OS/2 will run on
it, and to those who are thinking about
putting together a PlvJ capable mach ine.
It’s not always a great idea to build a
minimum acceptable system that runs
OS/2, so J won't necessarily recommend
the cheapest video board or disk control¬
ler, On the other hand, we can't all af¬
ford a Beichfire 950 33-MHz 80386. So
111 try to assemble the cheapest reason¬
ably powered PM -based workstation. It
won't be Mark's Dream Machine —just a
machine that will get the job done.
Hardware
OS/2 requires the following:
• either an 80286- or 80386-based
motherboard
• an OS/2- friendly BIOS
* an IBM PC AT-type hard disk
controller
* a 1 .2- or 1 .44-mcgabyte floppy
disk drive A that works without
a device driver
# a 60-megabyte hard disk drive
that works without a device driver.
with 32-megabyte or smaller
partitions
* EGA or VGA graphics
* at least 2.6 megabytes of memory
* a mouse or other pointing device
* 16450-based serial ports
Wait! 1 see some of you shaking your
heads, muttering, “Big, ugly, and
slow - " Don't leave yet! Consider that
OS/2 is considerably more powerful than
DOS, and it consequently needs a more
powerful platform. I remember when
people told me that Lotus 1-2-3 would
never sell because it needed 512K bytes
of memory to be really useful.
As anyone who reads this column
knows, I'm no apologist for IBM or
Microsoft, But OS/2's hardware require¬
ments aren't necessarily a bad thing.
OS/2 changes the meaning of “minimum
configuration,” Programs will have to
be written to a new lowest common de¬
nominator, one that requires high-qual¬
ity graphics.
Programs that use graphics effectively
are now scarce in the IBM PC world, be¬
cause developers have had to contend
with the many monochrome boards and
the incompatible Hercules/EGA/CGA
‘‘standards.” An OS/2 application can
assume that EGA graphics, minimum ,
will exist on any machine it runs on. So
we’ll see more and better graphical pro¬
grams under OS/2 than we’ve seen under
DOS,
An OS/2-CompatibIe Motherboard
OS/2 requires, as we all know by now,
an 80286 or an 80386. Which to buy?
I've discussed the overweening merits of
the 80386 in the past. But we're trying to
trim costs here, so I'll talk about an inex¬
pensive 80286-based workstation.
One final word in favor of the 80386,
though: Most 80386s nowadays (at least
until the EISA [Extended Industry Stan¬
dard Architecture] bus becomes a stan¬
dard) differ from 80286s only in the
continued
ILLUSTRATION: JAMES YANG ©
FEBRUARY I9S9 * B Y T E 157
OS/2 NOTEBOOK
motherboard and kind of memory— the
rest of the add-in boards are identical.
You’ll buy the same 16-bit Ethernet card,
VGA card, and so on. The difference be¬
tween an 80286 and an 80386, pricewise,
is just an initial $700 to $1000. I know,
$1000 isn’t peanuts, but this workstation
is going to run about $5000 anyway, so
another $1000 for 80386 hardware and
obsolescence-proofing wouldn’t be a bad
investment.
A basic 80286 AT-like motherboard—
probably 10 MHz, no wait states, the
low-end product these days — will work
fine, as long as it has the right BIOS. The
80286 BIOS chips I’ve worked with are
from IBM, Compaq, Phoenix, Award,
DTK, and AMI. I’ll eliminate those
from IBM and Compaq for obvious cost
reasons.
Of the remaining, I’d recommend
either Phoenix or Award. I’ve had trou¬
ble running even OS/2 version 1.0 on
some machines with AMI or DTK
BIOSes. As late as early October— the
last time I checked— one clone maker,
Everex, told me that it couldn’t run any
version of OS/2 due to its AMI BIOS.
The problem is due to be fixed— Everex
will offer its own OS/2 soon— but the
problem remains for garden-variety AMI
BIOSes and most OS/2 implementations.
Perhaps it will be fixed by the time you
read this.
I’ve tried OS/2 on some DTK mother¬
boards with DTK BIOSes without any
luck. If you remove the DTK BIOS, how¬
ever, and install a Phoenix BIOS, OS/2
will boot on many machines. Of course,
if you have a machine that is compatible
at the DOS level rather than at the BIOS
or hardware level, you’ve got a fairly
slim chance of getting anyone’s OS/2 to
run except that manufacturer’s— if the
company chooses to offer one.
One motherboard feature that would
be particularly useful for running OS/2
would be a large memory capacity. We’re
starting to see motherboards that accom¬
modate 4 or 8 megabytes of RAM. Be
very careful here, however— memory is
so expensive nowadays that the type of
memory used in a computer is a major
factor in determining the computer’s
overall cost. For example, looking at the
prices this week (the end of October) for
one large supplier, 1 megabyte of 100-
nanosecond RAM would cost $347 if
purchased as 1-megabit dynamic RAMs,
$425 if purchased as a single in-line
memory module, or $495 if purchased as
four banks of 256K-bit DRAMs.
Whatever memory system your com¬
puter uses, you need a lot of it. To simply
boot the PM with the compatibility box
requires 2.6 megabytes, and you’re best
with a minimum of 4 megabytes. After
all, why go to all the trouble to run OS/2
and end up with a few K bytes of free
space? This way, you’ll have a bit over 1
megabyte to work with.
What did I end up with? A 10-MHz,
no-wait-state, no-name AT motherboard
with 5 12K bytes on-board (expandable to
1 megabyte) and equipped with a Phoe¬
nix BIOS version 3.10. It came in a box
with a power supply, an OMTI full-
track-buffered AT controller, and a key¬
board for $720. Then I added an Everex
RAM 3000 memory-expansion board
and 3 megabytes in 256K-bit chips (I
know I said that the 256K-bit DRAMs
are the most expensive, but I already had
the chips around). The board cost $170,
and the chips ran $1500. Total so far:
$2390.
Hard Disk and Controller
OS/2 requires a hard disk drive. You can
boot OS/2 from a floppy disk, but you
can’t fit all the basic OS/2 files on a sin¬
gle 1 .2-megabyte floppy disk. So, even if
you boot from a floppy disk, you have to
operate from a hard disk. The PM, the
OS/2 files, a few basic utilities, and an
editor together take up 6.9 megabytes on
my disk. That’s not counting things like
the C compiler; it’s just the kind of things
that a typical user will have as the basic
OS/2 PM package. Hence, my 60-mega-
byte recommendation.
Believe me, my 60-megabyte Priam
hard disk is bursting at the seams. As
OS/2 is disk-intensive, you’d do well to
acquire a fast hard disk drive. One sug¬
gestion is the Seagate ST4096, an 80-
megabyte drive with an access time in the
area of 30 milliseconds. Discounters are
offering the ST4096 at this writing for
just under $600. Total cost so far: $2990.
You can use just about any AT-type
hard disk controller. The only kind of
controller to avoid is an XT type. I know
you wouldn’t deliberately buy an XT
controller for an AT, but if you have up¬
graded your XT to an AT with a “baby
AT” motherboard, you may still be using
your old XT controller. While outfitting
a new OS/2 workstation, the basic AT-
type Western Digital WD1003 controller
should do just fine.
When formatting your 60-megabyte
drive, you may be tempted to run On-
track Computer Systems’ Disk Manager,
PC-DOS 4.0, Storage Dimensions’
SpeedStor, or some other device driver
that allows a logical drive to exceed 32
megabytes in size. Don ’t do it. OS/2 just
plain doesn’t know how to deal with logi¬
cal drives larger than 32 megabytes. Just
run FDISK from OS/2 or DOS 3.3 to par¬
tition the disk to a logical C drive of 32
megabytes and a logical D drive of 28
megabytes.
Next stop: serial ports and video.
You’d never believe it, but saving money
on video was the hardest part. Can our
hero build a PM-capable OS/2 worksta¬
tion for less than $5000? Tune in next
month.
IBM OS/2 1.1 News
Just a day after the deadline for this col¬
umn, I got a copy of IBM’s OS/2 version
1.1. There’s a lot of good news, and
some bad news.
IBM’s PM seems less machine-picky.
I got it to run fine on some no-name
80286 and 80386 clones, whereas IBM’s
version 1 .0 wouldn’t run on the vast ma¬
jority of the clones. And it seems fast— no
benchmarks yet, though.
You can now restrict the amount of
disk space that can be used for disk swap¬
ping. Previously, the swapper could eat
up all your free space. Now you can say
“leave me x megabytes free.”
There will, indeed, be a CGA video
driver for the PM. It will ship at the end
of February.
It’s big. IBM has squeezed the files
onto five 1.44-megabyte floppy disks. A
new UNPACK command unsqueezes
them to about 14 megabytes— my earlier
reference to 6.9 megabytes concerned the
Microsoft Software Developer’s Toolkit.
I haven’t had enough time yet to find
out whether or not this is some kind of
copy-protection scheme, but FORMAT
/S does not work. You get a message to
the effect that “the /S option is not sup¬
ported in this version of OS/2.” I hope
I’ve just overlooked something simple.
OS/2 Tip of the Month
Last month, I complained that there are
no inexpensive OS/2 API (Application
Program Interface) references. Two days
after the galleys disappeared into the
production process, I found OS/2 API:
The Pocket Reference by Kris Jamsa (Os¬
borne/McGraw-Hill, 1988). That’s all it
is— no OS/2 tips or tricks, just the un¬
adorned API. But for $5.95, what a deal!
OS/2 programming just got cheaper. ■
Mark Minasi is a managing partner at
Moulton, Minasi & Company, a Colum¬
bia, Maryland, firm specializing in tech¬
nical seminars. He can be reached on
BIX as “mj minasi. ”
Your questions and comments are wel¬
come. Write to: Editor, BYTE, One
Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH
03458.
158 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
TWo new DESQviews.
Theyte everything you want in
windowing environments.
DESQview” is the operating environment
that brings OS/2” power to COS. And it lets
you, with your trusty 8088, 8086, 80286, or
80386 PC, leap into the next generation in
PC productivity. For not much money.
And without throwing away your favorite
software.
Introducing DESQview 2,2
And now, DESQview 2.2 adds capabilities,
performance, and compatibility enhance¬
ments you've been asking for:
Like being able to fine tune DESQview
performance "on the fly." Run Lotus
Express and Metro. And the Intel Connec¬
tion Co Processor. Even use the DOS 4.0
shell with DESQview. Have DESQview
automatically install Quattro, Sprint, Aldus
PageMaker, Microsoft Excel, Word Perfect,
Dataease and as many as 80 other programs.
And using the DESQview API, be able to
dynamically link them.
More bang; less bytes
While other programs get bigger,
we've worked to make DESQ-
view smaller. And we've succeed¬
ed in a big way on PCs and
PS/2ws with extended, EMS 3,2
(Aboveboard), EEMS and EMS
4,0 memory— as well as on 386
PCs and PS/2s, For example.
And less.
like Paradox 386, and IBM Interleaf simulta¬
neously with your favorite DOS programs.
All with the speed and performance you
expect out of your 386. And with protection
against 'misbehaved' programs.
Promise and performance
And, of course, both DESQviews have all
the features that made prior versions the
popular choice in operating environments.
The ability to multi¬
task in 640K and
beyond. View pro¬
grams in windows
or full screen.
Did you buy another envi¬
ronment that hasn't li ved up
to your expectations? Trade
up to new DESQview. See
coupon below.
For programmers, DESQview's
API, with its strengths in inter¬
task communications a nd mult¬
itasking, brings a quick and
easy way to adapt to the future.
With the API's mailboxes and
shared programs, programmers
are able to design programs
running on DOS with capabili¬
ties tike those of OS/1
DESQview overhead on EMS 4.0 and 386 PCs
can be as low as 10K on EGA/ VGA PCs. And
DESQview actually increases memory 30K on
CGA PCs; 20K on monochrome and Hercules
PCs. That's good news for users of big desktop
publishing, CAD and database programs.
Introducing DESQview 386
For users of 80386 PCs and PS/2s (or PCs with
80386 add-in boards, such as the
Intel Inboard 386), there's
DESQview 386 (a combination of
DESQview 2.2 and the new
QEMM-386 Quarterdeck Expanded
Memory Manager, version 4.2).
DESQview 386 gives you extraordi¬
nary power. Run text, CGA, EGA,
VGA, and Hercules programs in windows and
in the background. Run 32-bit 386 programs,
Transfer data. Access DOS via menus. Dial
your phone. And create keystroke macros
within and between programs.
Our story gets better and better
If there's any doubt about our commitment to
your PC and PS/2 productivity, just look at
our accomplishments over the years. We think
you will understand why PC Magazine gave
DESQview its Editor's
Choice Award for "The Best
* Alternative to OS/2/' why
readers of Info World twice
voted DESQview "Product of
the Year," why, by popular vote
at Comdex Fall for two years in a row, DESQ¬
view was chosen "Best PC Environment" in
PC Tech Journal's Systems Builder Contest.
DESQview lets you have it all now.
- L
INFO I
wopito iAXDTW;
PRODUCT
OF THE
YEAR
DESQvmT 5yUnn Hfqumncib' IBM PcrcOrtaJ Crtnpultf Art!
SOTO ctcipaijWfs Iwifti 30286, nr 80386 protEson)
wiffi nwradunmr or rttof diifby; IBM PmoiuJ Syslem/2'
horary. f4£)R imTcinmireij for DESQview itself Ot45K*
Expended Mftrcry (Optioful). (xpirxfei m«ne*Y bonds
mnpuribfc with the [rid Hihlfrtd ■quided
memory brads cranpunbfe wth the AST RAM pajjr; EMS 4 0
i-i rtr«2iXj rramm brads4 [>.sk hro dcskrttr tftrvis or one
diislfttf dmv jrtT.7 LitI did. ■ Graphic Lard (Optima l.i.
(inode. [BMCoktf/GraphkslOGA). IBM Enhaiwd Graphics
[EGA), IBM Pmcnai Systan/2 Adsm-ed Graphics (VGA)*
Mouse (tytionalh Mouse Systems. Microsoft and compatible*
Mftksn W Aigo-0ialer (OpfcfcmaTk J tapes or onnpaEibfe*
toaAtf&te PC-DC& M5-DCS2W> Software:
MoS PCTOS and h&D06 apdicabem programs; pfcigjams
spraJi: id Microsoft Mrdrnvs I . GEM 1 .1 -M, IBM
TnpVfew ] .] * MlMl] DESQview 2ft is available on niher > I /V
Of >yy Aypydatoie.
prepslv flier nsjvctiwe hc^en. 1EM, OS/2.
PS/2 Lotus, Exjrca, Metro, QuaHnj, Sprinl, Aldus, Papf htaLrt
Intel, Above Eoini. Hsuufes. Mxubc Sysions, Hiya,
Microsoft, Wm&tws, Excel, Wbfd Perfprt. Efataease. Paradox
miideritaf.TfipV^
YES!
I need increased
productivity now!
Payment Q Visa □ MasterCard
Expiration /
Account # I
n
Qty
1 'red nd
vn
P/2
Price Each
Totals
DESQview 386 Multitasking windowing environment
5189,90
DESOview 12 Multitasking windowing environment
5129.95
DESOview 12 Upgrade from DESOviewVersion 10
_ $24.95
Upgrade from DESOview IjQ k AST Special Editions)*
S60.00
Upgrade from Top view, Windows, Vist-Gn, etc)**
J£5.Q0
QEMM-3B6 Version 4.2
559,95
OEMM-386 Version 4-2 Upgrade. OEMM UR]*
SI 9 95
Name
Addre$s_
Cily_
Shipping k Handling $5 in USA/ Si 0 outside USA
Calif Residents add 65%
Grand Total
State
Zip
Quarterdeck Office Systems, 150 Pico Boulevard, Santa Monica, CA 90405 (213) 392-9851 Fax: (213) 399-3802 J
* RraffiE DESQview or QEMM-386 rrpstratitf; ard DO file at Quariedect Of iwfttled with upjpade oHer upgrades bar to
**]t£SlphSerd pnx* purchase of any CTHi]tit2rtiiiig cprrating BMRHftrtMte rower uf ynur manual
1, 1(¥S. Qjaitnded, priority strriflt ibov 33^ discount from upgrade price plus safes to and stapiw^/haisdlmg.
do— and sftid l! t'-us aJcwig with (he appropriate (MYthenl plus shipping, hJrxSIpg and tut-
Circle J92 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 * B Y T E 159
On pur 286,
you’ve been making any task look complicated.
On your 386,
it hasn’t been incredibly exciting having all that power.
If the screens on the right look more
intriguing to you than those on the left,
you’re ready for Microsoft® Window's.
Window's opens up theworidof1 visual
thinking to ah 286 and 386 owners by
offering the power of graphics.
Everything you can do on your PC,
you can now do better, faster and with
greater imagination. Whether you’re creat¬
ing documents or trying to get a clearer
picture of your work.
What used to take complicated key- f
strokes can now be accomplished with j
the simple click of a mouse. With
Microsoft Windows, you access pull¬
down menus. Simultaneously work
with different programs as well as cut
and paste between them to create
graphic examples within different
bodies of text And what you see on the
screen win appear on your printedpage.
And once you’ve learned Micro¬
soft Windows, you’ll have the basis for
scores of other programs because all the
countless newWindows applications are
based on the same easy, logical format
Since Microsoft Windows vir¬
tually looks and works like MS® OS/2
Presentation Manager, you won’t have
to worry about it becoming obsolete
in a couple years. We made both sys-
terns compatible. So,
m the future, you 11 ■%ai
be able to share m lhe mm ».
data between them. And your knowledge
of Windows will give you a jump on learn¬
ing MS OS/2 Presentation Manager.
You’d expect a program this powerful
to require a more powerful machine. But
we consistently create softw'are that makes
©Copyright 1988, Microsoft Corporation All rights reserved Micnasoft^ the Microcsoft Jofio and N IS nre registered trademarks, and Making Stall make sense is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
The following products have been used courtesy of their respective developers: Lotus and 1 -2 -3 by Lotus Dev elopment Corporation; WordPerfect by WordPerfect Corporation; PageMaker by Aldus
160 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
What you could have been dang.
r
With Windows/386,
you could have been seeing a lot more things much more clearly.
the best use of your present hardware.
For example, Microsoft Window's/
286 will work with as little as 640K and
instantly make your
machine moresensi-
tive, intuitive and
highly visual. It gives
you the ability to
run every Windows
application available.
^ And with access to all those
” powerful programs, you’ll
be able to extend the life and usefulness of
your 286 well beyond the introduction of
MS OS/2 Presentation Manager. With
version 2.1 you also get the benefit of
increased speed. So you’ll blaze through
Window's applications up to 87% faster.
Microsoft Windows/386 will give you
everything that Windows/286 gives you.
Plus multitasking with most DOS applica¬
tions. Nowr you can finally utilize the speed
and power of any 386 machine.
Imagine creating a complicated spread¬
sheet. Then while a macro is being run,
open up a word processor. Type a docu¬
ment, open and
werkwitha
graphics pro¬
gram. Cut and
paste between programs and even call up
electronicmail. Andstillbeabletochedkon
the status of your spreadsheet at any time.
Considering all you can do with Micro¬
soft Windows, you have only one question
to ask yourself.
What have you been doing without it?
Microsoft
Corporation: dBASE III PLCSbv .Ashton Tate Corporation; Network Courierbv Consumers Software, Incorporated; Micrografx by Micrografx. Incorporated: Pack Rat by Polaris Software; and CFO
Advisor by Financial Feasibilities. Incorporated. Pack/to/ is a trademark of Polaris Software. CFO Advisor is a trademark of Financial Feasibilities. Incorporated.
FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 161
Our Printer Sharing Unit
Does Networking!
An Integrated Solution
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162 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 200 on Reader Service Card
EXPERT ADVICE
C0M1: ■ Brock N. Meeks
The ABCs of X-,
Y-, AND ZMODEM
XMODEM, the trail-
blazer among file-
transfer protocols, has
spawned a host
of offspring
The dictionary definition of pro¬
tocol is “proper and correct
conduct/’ We encounter several
instances of protocol every day*
and we take most of them for granted.
From navigating 2-plus tons of metal
from a crowded freeway to an off-ramp
or dealing with that surprise visit from
the in-laws* some sort of protocol is
called into play. Often* protocols are
learned through years of experience* but
sometimes they are simply a matter of
law or social norm*
In the telecommunications arena* until
the last few years, file-transfer protocol
wasn't an issue. You had exactly two
choices: straight ASCII transfers or
XMODEM, At that time, there wasn’t
any confusion* but our limited choices
played havoc with the dilemma of how to
move large amounts of data over the
phone lines,
Today* more than a dozen types of
file-transfer protocols are wandering
around the communications cosmos* The
differences in efficiency among these
protocols* and why each was originally
developed* are often a matter of personal
preference as much as they are a quest for
a better mousetrap.
Ours is an age of specialization. Bear¬
ing that in mind, you shouldn't be sur¬
prised that File-transfer protocols are
also specialized. No single protocol is
the optimum choice in all circumstances.
XMODEM— Good Enough?
Ward Christensen wrote the original
binary file-transfer program, which he
called MODEM. Keith Petersen adapted
the program and called it XMODEM,
The XMODEM protocol is a de facto
file-transfer standard. But although it
has achieved the status of a standard, it
isn't internationally recognized as such.
In an industry replete with standards, the
fact that there’s no official standard for
file transfers seems incredible, but the
telecommunications world seems filled
with situations like this.
Because XMODEM is easy to imple¬
ment, almost every communications
package has its own version. Although
these XMODEM implementations vary
in how efficient they are, all but the most
poorly implemented are compatible. It’s
rare to find two versions of XMODEM
that can’t complete a file transfer.
Simply speaking* XMODEM is a half-
duplex protocol that transfers files in
blocks of 128 bytes. Half-duplex means
that only one computer can be “talking”
at a time. Either the sender or the re¬
ceiver is sending information to the
other; it’s akin to a one-lane road that
must handle two-way traffic. A block is
merely a sequence of bytes grouped to¬
gether and sent across the phone line as a
unit. These blocks are sent in sequence,
so a lK-byte file requires the transfer of
eight 128-byte blocks*
In the XMODEM protocol, the remote
computer checks the integrity of each
block of data, If the integrity of the block
is intact, the remote sends the ACK (ac¬
knowledgment) signal to the local ma¬
chine* which then sends another block. If
the integrity check fails, the local com¬
puter receives a NAK (negative acknowl¬
edgment) and must send the block again,
The original XMODEM has several
problems. The short block length, 128
bytes, causes throughput to suffer when
used in conjunction with time -sharing
devices, packet -switched networks* sat¬
ellite circuits, and buffered (error-cor¬
recting) modems.
Also* XMODEM uses a simple one-
coniinued
ILLUSTRATION: EMILY POLISHOGK © 1989
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 163
COMi:
character checksum for detecting errors.
In this scheme, the protocol calculates a
checksum (using the ASCII values of the
characters in the block) and appends a
byte, representing the value of the check¬
sum, to the end of the block. The receiv¬
ing system calculates the checksum of
the block it received and compares that to
the value of the checksum at the end of
the block. If the values are the same, the
block is considered intact and the next
block is transferred. Noisy lines, how¬
ever, can easily confuse and corrupt this
checksum scheme.
To overcome the checksum scheme's
susceptibility to noisy lines, a beefier
error-checking scheme was developed—
a 16-bit cyclic redundancy check. The
addition of a 16-bit CRC using a two-
character CRC-16, instead of the one-
character arithmetic checksum used by
the original XMODEM protocol, is
known as the XMODEM/CRC protocol.
Another problem; The process of
sending and receiving each block, and
the ensuing error-checking done on each
block sent, take a certain amount of
time. This checking process is called
overhead , In the original XMODEM
protocol, the ACK/NAK signals were
sent after every 128-byte block. Now,
though, the XMODEM protocol has been
enhanced to allow the transfer of files in
lK-byte blocks. This improvement,
D
espite
its shortcomings,
XMODEM continues
to be widely used .
called XMODEM- IK, means that fewer
individual blocks need to be transferred
and less overall time is needed for the
ACK/NAK signals. This change has re¬
sulted in higher throughput and less time
on-line.
XMODEM has other problems. You
can transfer only one file at a time, the
file transmitted can accumulate up to
127 extraneous bytes, and the modifica¬
tion date of the file is lost when it's trans¬
ferred from one system to the other.
Despite its shortcomings, XMODEM
continues to be widely used and widely
accepted, and virtually everyone sup¬
ports if for all kinds of communications.
Indeed, there isn't a communications
package around that doesn't claim some
sort of XMODEM compatibility,
Christensen readily admits that his
XMODEM protocol is ‘"not robust"1 and
that the only reason XMODEM is the ac¬
cepted standard is because llit was re¬
leased in August of 1977 and immedi¬
ately dumped into the public domain,”
At the time, anything put into the public
domain was seized on by hackers eager
for any new challenges. And everyone
thought he or she could do it better.
Thus, XMODEM has had several evolu¬
tions, each independent of the other. The
various adaptations of Christensen's
original file-transfer protocol have led to
a virtual Tower of protocol Babel.
Y MODEM— Better Than X?
After XMODEM came YMODEM, This
protocol addresses many of the shortfalls
How the competition stands
Introducing the modem with a sleek new
stand-up* design. Telebit’s new T1000 Multi-
Speed modem. The modem that not only looks
different, but is different. With more features.
More performance. And a surprisingly low price.
More modem for less money.
What makes the T1000 so different?
For one, you get a choice of more speeds. The
T1000 can send and receive data at 300, 1200,
2400, or 9600 bps using ordinary dial-up
phone lines.
So the T1000 can talk to your installed
base of low-speed modems, plus the large
installed base of Telebit and other PEP'” high¬
speed modems.
But it costs about the same as a
2400 bps error-free modem.
Another difference? The T1000 runs at
9600 bps with any type of data— without com¬
pression. Error free. With MNP and PEP
error detection and correction.
The T1000 fits right in.
The T1000 Multi-Speed modem even talks
Hayes— right from the box. And if you’re using
the AT command set or even Smartcom III
software, were compatible. You won’t need new
software. And you won’t need new commands.
The T1000 also has internal support for
the most widely-used communications protocols
— Kermit, Xmodem, Ymodem and UNIX’s
UUCP So you can transfer files up to 3 times
faster than any other modem.
COMI:
of its forerunner. For starters, it trans¬
fers files in IK-byte blocks and supports
multiple file transfers, otherwise known
as batch-file transfers. Veterans of the
telecommunications world might wonder
why we need a new batch-file protocol
when the older CP/M-based MODEM?
protocol supported batch files. The
answer is that MODEM7 didn't support
full path names, file length, file date, or
other attribute information to be trans¬
mitted.
YMODEM, like XMODEM, is a half¬
duplex protocol. To further overcome
the limitations of the half-duplex
modem, YMODEM-g was developed.
The “g” option of YMODEM is a modi¬
fication of the YMODEM in which ACKs
for data blocks aren't used, The data is
merely sent all at once. The protocol
doesn't use the ACK/NAK turnaround
that XMODEM uses.
The receiver initiates the g option.
When the sending computer recognizes
this option, it knows to bypass the usual
wait for an ACK to each transmitted
block, sending all blocks in sequence
and at full speed. The protocol, how¬
ever, is subject to XON/XOFF flow con¬
trols (stop and go signals imposed by
packet-switched network s) .
YMODEM-g is intended to take ad¬
vantage of high-speed, error-correcting
modems. That's because error correc-
MODEM
is an attempt
to correct the defects in
X- and YMODEM.
tion is taken care of at another level— be¬
tween the hardware of the two systems.
Theoretically, then, the software doesn't
have to worry about things like ACK sig¬
nals. The bottom line with YMODEM-g
is that it doesn't support error recovery.
If a NAK is received, the file transfer
aborts. For this reason, you should use
YMODEM-g only in a hard-wrircd envi¬
ronment or with a session -level protocol
that takes care of error correction,
ZMODEM— Best of the Bunch?
The author of YMODEM and ZMODEM
is Chuck Forsberg. ZMODEM is an at¬
tempt to correct the defects in the previ¬
ous versions of X- and YMODEM. The
development of the ZMODEM protocol
was funded by Telenet in an effort to im¬
prove a file- transfer protocol used with
packet-switched networks. ZMODEM is
an end-to-end protocol that uses a tech¬
nique cal led streaming ,
With streaming, the sender doesn’t
expect to get any ACK signals back from
the receiver until the transfer is com¬
plete. If an error occurs, the sender will
receive a NAK, and it's up to the sender
to ensure that it can recover from any
NAK received. This technique is advan¬
tageous when you're using a packet-
switched network where the session-level
protocols that are exerted by the network
add more delays for file-transfer turn¬
around.
ZMODEM is extremely robust be¬
cause of the error-correction scheme de-
coniinutd
up to Tfelebit’s newest modem.
And here’s another big difference. Since
the T1000 runs the most popular communi¬
cations software at the highest possible speeds.
You can take full advantage of packages like
Hyper ACCESS, Crosstalk-Fast, Microphone II,
and Acknowledge.
Just plug us in, and the T1000 will fit
right in. No matter what your environment.
Remote management for ease of use.
Here’s the final difference. The T1000
offers a host of remote management features.
Including remote access, remote configuration
and remote diagnostics.
So get the modem that’s head and
shoulders above the rest. In features and per¬
formance. At just the right price. Telebit’s new
T1000 Multi-Speed Modem.
Call 1-800-TELEBIT or
(415) 969-3800, today.
Or write Telebit at
1345 Shorebird Way, Moun¬
tain View, CA 94043-1329.
Fax: (415) 969-8888.
Because no one gets the
message through like Telebit.
T1000.
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Circle 228 on Reader Service Card
C0M1:
HOW DO YOU GET
A JOB WITHOUT
EXPERIENCE?
AND HOW DO YOU
GET EXPERIENCE
WITHOUT A JOB?
Most young people have one
answer to this problem. They avoid it
until they’re out of college. But they
could be getting solid work experi¬
ence while they’re still in college. With
your company’s help. And ours.
We’re Co-op Education. A nation¬
wide program that helps college
students get real jobs for real pay,
while they’re getting an education.
But we can’t do it without you.
Those real jobs have to come from
real companies. Like yours.
For more information on how
you can participate in this valuable
program, write Co-op Education,
Box 775E, Boston, MA 02115.
Not only will you be giving students
a chance to earn money and pick up
the most valuable kind of knowledge,
you’ll be giving yourselves a chance
to pick up the most valuable kind
of employee.
veloped by Forsberg; all ZMODEM
transactions are protected with 16- or 32-
bit CRC. According to Forsberg, when it
is properly used, the 32-bit CRC reduces
undetected errors by at least 5 orders of
magnitude. ZMODEM also has a special
security-challenge mechanism that
guards against “Trojan Horse” messages
written to mimic legitimate commands
or file downloads.
Other advanced features include the
ability of the sending or receiving com¬
puter to trigger an automatic download
or command sequence; automatic step-
down to YMODEM if the other end does
not support ZMODEM (this ability, of
course, assumes that the transmission
medium accommodates both XMODEM
and YMODEM); ease of implementation
via a shell to an external program
(DSZ.EXE); and file transfers that begin
immediately, regardless of which pro¬
gram is started first, without the 10-sec¬
ond delay associated with XMODEM file
transfers.
On the Horizon
Is there any rule of thumb you can follow
concerning what protocol will best fill
your needs? Sure. Try out several of
them, and use what works best for you.
In today’s environment, that usually
means XMODEM. After all is said and
done, it’s really the basic “standard.”
And assuming your communications
package supports such protocols, you
can improve your file transfers by using
the more advanced X-/YMODEM-1K
protocols.
We now have a wide variety of file-
transfer protocols to choose from. And
until the industry comes up with an offi¬
cial standard, you may find that the intel¬
ligent way to go is to use a combination of
several different protocols. How do you
know which protocol is the best to use in
any given situation?
Next month, I will address this issue
and explore the effect of high-speed
modems, with their built-in error-cor¬
rection schemes, on these various proto¬
cols. I’ll compare each of these protocols
when they are used over normal voice-
grade telephone lines and with packet-
switched networks. The results are
mixed and, in some cases, surprising. ■
Co-op Education.
You earn a future when you earn a degree.
A Public Service of This Publication ©1987 National Commission for Cooperative Education
Brock N. Meeks is a San Francisco-based
freelance writer who specializes in high
technology. You can reach him on BIX as
“brock. ”
Your questions and comments are wel¬
come. Write to: Editor, BYTE, One
Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH
03458.
166 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
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MicroLINK comes as stand alone
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FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 167
DAZZLING PERFORMANCE.
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286/ SS
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■ Zero-Wait State RAM, 512K expandable to 4 MB on the
motherboard (16MB System Total).
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■ Ultra high speed Hard/Floppy controller. 1:1 interleave,
800 KB/sec transfer rate.
■ High Res 12” Amber Display with Tilt and Swivel Base.
Compatible graphics controller.
■ ZEOS Enhanced Keyboard, Pleasant Tactile/Click Feel.
■ Serial and Parallel Printer Ports.
■ Clock/Calendar with Battery Backup.
■ 6-16 and 2-8 bit expansion slots.
■ 80287 support, up to 12 MHz.
■ Space Saver Case with Security Lock, LED indicators.
12MHz, 16MHz and 20MHz
'286 HARD DRIVE SYSTEMS
As high as 20MHz! Dazzling performance is yours with
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Each comes complete with our standard features includ¬
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which are internal. Incredible values.
■ 286/12— Complete 12 MHz System with 512K of Zero-
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Product Focus ■ Optimizing C Compilers
Optimizing C compilers
combine speed, high-
level convenience and
low-level power
Steve Apiki
and Jon Udell
C compilers have long been
available for DOS, but sophis¬
ticated optimization and inte¬
grated environments are re¬
cent developments- Optimization
techniques, especially, have brought
new power to C, Handcrafted assembly
language code still outdoes even the best
machine-generated code, but optimizers
are rapidly improving, and as a result
programmers can rely more on C and
less on assembly language.
This month, we focus on a narrow sub¬
set of C compilers for DOS— those with
highly developed optimization capabili¬
ties- We looked at six packages; Turbo,
Aztec, MetaWare, Microsoft, Watcom,
and Zortech. Table 1 lists basic features.
All six compilers are more or less
compatible with the developing ANSI
standard (see table 2), and all include li¬
brary support for standard functions. We
evaluated each compiler with a bench¬
mark suite consisting of tests developed
by BYTE’s editors and by C experts,
C Background
C is a high-level language originally de¬
fined by Brian Kernighan and Dennis
Ritchie in the early 1970s. Its cult of pop¬
ularity began during C’s early associa¬
tion with Unix. But C went on to earn a
reputation based on two essential quali¬
ties: portability (there’s a C compiler for
Smoothing Out C
nearly every computer) and versatility.
Because C’s fundamental data types
map closely to underlying machine
types, C has been called the universal as¬
sembly language. That makes it a good
language in which to implement, for ex¬
ample, a code generator. Yet because the
rules by which you combine fundamen¬
tal C data types into more complex types
are regular and systematic, C also works
well at high levels of abstraction. So it’s
an equally good language in which to im¬
plement a database package or a window¬
ing system.
The proliferation of C, which Ker¬
nighan and Ritchie only informally
specified, inevitably began to cause
problems. Compiler writers diverged in
their interpretations of the language, and
they created incompatible dialects. More
recently, there’s been a movement to
standardize the language around a set of
guidelines being developed by an ANSI
committee (see the text box “An ANSI
Conformance Sampler” by Thomas
Plum on page 176).
All the compilers we tested conformed
well to the unofficial standard. We ran
thousands of lines of code through each
compiler with virtually no problems.
Using compilers available just 3 or 4
years ago, however, our results probably
would have been different.
Optimization Techniques
Compiler optimizations fall into two
broad categories: source level and object
level. Source-level optimizations operate
independently of the target processor;
object- level optimizations seek to exploit
the characteristics of the target machine.
Hoisting of loop- invariant code is one
classic source-level optimization. Here,
the optimizer detects that an operation
within a loop— say, an assignment— does
not affect and is unaffected by the other
operations in the loop, and so hoists the
loop-invariant statement out of the loop.
The assignment happens once (not many
times), and the resulting code runs
faster. Other source- level optimizations
include elimination of dead code, elimi¬
nation of unnecessary copies, constant
folding, and elimination of common sub¬
expressions,
A section of code is dead if there’s no
way for it to execute— a statement within
an if (0) { * - - } block, for example. An
optimizer can simply discard such a
statement. Unnecessary copies occur
when a variable that’s assigned a value
isn’t used; again, an optimizer can dis¬
card the futile assignment.
When the value of an arithmetic ex¬
pression is constant and can be deter¬
mined directly or indirectly by inspec¬
tion of the source code, an optimizer can
fold the constant into the code in place of
the expression and thus shift the burden
of computation from run time to compile
time. When the same expression occurs
twice in a region of code, an optimizer
can replace that common subexpression
with a temporary variable.
Object -level optimizations complete
an optimizing compiler’s repertoire. In¬
telligent use of the available set of in¬
structions and addressing modes repre¬
sents one form of object-level optimiza¬
tion.
The 80x86 architecture, for example,
offers particularly effective instructions
for moving and comparing bytes; com¬
pilers targeted to that architecture should
use those instructions. Efficient use of
registers for the storage of variables is
one of the most powerful optimization
techniques, Good register allocation is a
science. Register allocators often use a
so-called graph-coloring algorithm to
map the variables active within a section
of code to available registers and to make
optimal selections based on the amount
of use each variable receives.
We tested the si x C compilers for both
source optimization and object optimiza¬
tion. But our tests also explored two
other areas; low-level performance and
application performance (XLisp), To de-
continued
170 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
PHOTOGRAPH: WALTER WICK © 1989
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 171
PRODUCT FOCUS
OPTIMIZING C COMPILERS
Table 1: A summary of each compiler's features reveals differences that can enhance performance (0 = yes; O = no).
Borland
Turbo C
Professional
2.0
Manx
Aztec C86
Commercial
4. Id
Meta Ware
High C 286
1.4
Microsoft
C
5.1
Watcom
C
6.5
Zortech
C
1.07
Price
$250
$499
$595
$450
$495
$89.95
General
Single compiie/link command
•
•
O
•
•
•
Linker
•
•
O
•
•
•
Librarian
•
•
O
•
•
•
Stand-alone assembler
•
•
O
•
O
O
Make utility
•
•
O
•
•
•
Source code debugger
•
•
O
•
•
O
Editor
•
•
O
•
•
•
Integrated environment
•
O
O
•
•
Memory models
Tiny (64K total)
•
O
O
02
•
•
Small (64K code, 64K data)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Medium (1 M code, 64K data)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Compact (64 K code, 1 M data)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Large (1 M code, 1 M data)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Huge (large, but single data > 64K)3
•
O
•
•
•
O
Library
DOS interrupts
•
•
•4
•
•
•
Dual executables (80x87 emulator)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Graphics library
•
•
O
•
•
•
Language extensions
Pascal vs. C calling conventions
•
O
•
•
•
O
In-line assembler code
•
•
O
O
•
O
Assembler, linker
Real-mode 80386 instructions
O
O
•
O
O
O
Interface to assembler code
•
•
•
•
•
•
Interface to other HLL
•
O
•
•
•
O
ROMable code
o
•
•
•
•
•
Other
On-line help
•
O
O
•
•
•
Wild-card file specs to compile, link
•
O
O
•
•
•
Response file to compile, link
•
O
O
•
•
•
Install program
•
O
•
•
•
•
Documentation (pages)
2269
708
430
2518
1391
582
System requirements
Operating system
DOS 2.0
DOS 2.0
DOS 2.0
MS OS/2 1.0 or
DOS 2.1
DOS 2.0
DOS 2.0
RAM
448K
384K
384K
448K
512K
512K
Drives
Two floppy or
hard disk
Two floppy or
hard disk
Hard disk
Hard disk,
1.2M floppy5
Two floppy or
hard disk
Two floppy or
hard disk
Format
3V2" or 51/4."
CO
$
0
cn
£
5V4"
CO
$
=5
O
cn
£
3V2" or 51/4,/
31/2//or5V4W5
1 Editor/compiler only.
2 Memory models can be customized.
3 Static data can exceed 64K in any model (huge keyword).
4 No bdos function, but interrupts handled in library.
5 High density required for OS/2 functions only.
6 $20 additional charge for 3V2" version.
172 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
PRODUCT FOCUS
OPTIMIZING C COMPILERS
termine the effectiveness of the math li¬
braries, we ran the suite twice: once on a
Compaq 386 portable with an 80387
floating-point unit (FPU), and once on a
Northgate 386 with no coprocessor. All
tests were run using the small memory
model. Starting with the low-level
benchmarks, each test is detailed below,
and the results are found in table 3.
The Low-Level Tests
For our low-level tests, we used six C
functions devised by Thomas Plum.
Each function contains an inner loop that
executes exactly 1000 operations, and
the test names reflect the types of opera¬
tions they perform: integer arithmetic,
floating-point arithmetic, function call¬
ing, and so on. These tests, which Plum
Hall freely distributes, report the time-
in microseconds— required for a single
operation of a given type.
On our coprocessor-equipped Com¬
paq 386, for example, the results show
that an empty function call takes about
1.5 microseconds. That number was rel¬
atively invariant from compiler to com¬
piler: The fastest was Watcom at 1 .43 /*s,
the slowest was Aztec at 1 .55 [is.
In general, the compilers bunched
closely on the low-level tests, but the
floating-point test yielded more diver¬
sity. Zortech, which took second on the
emulator version of the test, finished last
on the coprocessor version. The moral:
Test both floating-point libraries that
your compiler provides.
The XLisp Tests
For the XLisp tests, we used each com¬
piler to build six working XLisp inter¬
preters. Then we used each interpreter to
run some benchmark programs. XLisp,
written by David Betz, is a freely distrib¬
uted program. Comprising 23 source
files and 24,000 lines of C source code,
XLisp is representative of the large, com¬
plex applications that serious C program¬
mers construct to solve real problems.
Our low-level benchmarks rate the
code generated by compilers according
to specific measures of performance.
They answer questions like: How effi¬
cient are function calls, integer multipli¬
cations, string comparisons, and pointer
operations? How fast are the emulator
and coprocessor library routines? How
effective is the optimizer?
Our application in this case is the
XLisp interpreter; its performance on a
suite of Lisp benchmarks we wrote espe¬
cially for this purpose constitutes our
high-level compiler benchmark. The
XLisp tests answer a more general — and
probably more interesting— question:
When you write a program that uses all
these features, how big will it be and how
fast will it run?
Building XLisp
We knew that using six compilers to
build six interpreters would be a big proj¬
ect. It was, but it turned out to be less dif¬
ficult than we thought, for two reasons.
First, XLisp is a cleanly written and
beautifully modular program. Second,
all the compilers support most of the im¬
portant proposed ANSI standard fea¬
tures, so we had virtually no problems.
There was just a single glitch. All
these compilers, except MetaWare’s,
support the library function bdos, which
enables C programs to use DOS INT21
functions. The IBM PC version of XLisp
uses bdos for a handful of primitive I/O
routines. It’s not part of the ANSI stan¬
dard, but it’s a convenience that many
IBM PC compilers provide.
MetaWare does provide an alternative:
You include an MS-DOS interface file
and can then use a function called call-
dos in conjunction with a structure
called Registers. It’s slightly less con¬
venient than bdos. You have to load Reg¬
isters with appropriate values, call
calldos, then retrieve the result from
Registers. But after a bit of experimen¬
tation, we got it to work.
XLisp makes just three calls to bdos,
and they’re encapsulated in a single file.
We added alternate versions of the three
XLisp functions (embedded in a condi¬
tional 0IFDEF METAWARE. . .#END-
IF block) and added -DEF METAWARE
(to activate that block) to the command
line we used when building XLisp with
the MetaWare compiler. That solved the
problem. It wasn’t pretty, but given the
scope of the project, we were pleasantly
surprised to find that, for six compilers,
one conditional block was the only modi¬
fication that we had to make.
Lisp Benchmark Programs
We wrote six Lisp benchmark programs.
The floating-point test executes 50,000
floating-point multiplications in a tight
loop. The two sort tests share a common
Lisp routine that implements an ex¬
change sort; the routine operates on a list
of objects and returns a sorted list. The
integer sort operates on a randomly gen¬
erated list of 500 integers, and the float
sort operates on a randomly generated
list of floats. The file I/O tests read and
write a 32K-byte file.
We built the lists once, stored them in
files, and used Lisp functions to read the
numbers and construct the lists, thus en¬
suring that each interpreter would per¬
form the same sequence of actions. We
didn’t time the helper functions. The
numbers shown reflect only the time re¬
quired for the sort.
Like the sort test, the sieve test exe¬
cutes a complex algorithm— in this case,
the classic prime-number sifter. But its
central data structure is an array— just as
in the C version of the sieve— rather than
a Lisp list. Lisp’s hallmark, list manipu¬
lation, relies on techniques and data
structures that aren’t typical of many ap¬
plications. To exercise a different (and
possibly more representative) kind of
functionality, we stored the flags that the
sieve uses in a Lisp array— an object
that’s implemented in a relatively
straightforward manner in terms of an
ordinary C array.
Finally, the function-call test mimics
its counterpart in the low-level suite.
Here, we repeatedly executed an empty
function call.
Results
The results show an interesting diversity.
Watcom won the floating-point test. That
makes sense, since it won the corre¬
sponding test in the low-level suite.
Turbo, Aztec, and MetaWare did poorly
on the floating-point test, and that too
correlates with their performance on the
low-level tests. Watcom took another
first on the sort tests, followed by Micro¬
soft. Zortech came in last on the sort;
that’s a bit surprising in view of its
relatively strong overall performance on
the low-level tests, and it proves that
low-level tests taken alone can be mis¬
leading.
By way of redemption, though, Zor¬
tech dominated the file I/O tests, fol¬
lowed by Microsoft and Watcom, with
MetaWare last. The winner of the Sieve
test was Microsoft, with Turbo a close
second. And Watcom did poorly on the
Sieve— an unexpected result given its
otherwise stellar performance. Watcom
and Microsoft took first and second on
the Function-Call test— results that again
correlate with the low-level tests.
The combined results show Watcom
and Microsoft as the favorites, as was
true in the low-level tests. But Watcom,
which trounced Microsoft on the low-
level tests, won the XLisp tests by only a
slim margin. That trend was apparent
across the board— in contrast to the low-
level tests, on the XLisp tests, times var¬
ied less from one compiler to another.
The slowest interpreter, compiled by Az¬
tec, trailed the fastest, compiled by Wat¬
com, by 30 percent on the low-level in¬
dex, but by only 20 percent on the XLisp
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 173
PRODUCT FOCUS
OPTIMIZING C COMPILERS
Table 2: The results of the Plum Hall ANSI validation suite. The tests represent requirements of the X3J11 standard.
Draft
reference
Description
Turbo C
2.0
Aztec C
4.1d
MetaWare C
1.4
Microsoft C
5.1
Watcom C
6.5
Zortech
1.07
2.1. 1.2
Backslash-splicing
O
•
•
O
•
O
2.1. 1.2
Phases of translation
O
o
O
o
O
o
2.2.1. 1
Trigraphs
o
0
o
o
•
o
2. 2. 4. 2
< float. h> : DBL_DIG>= 101
•
•
o
•
•
•
2. 2. 4. 2
<limits.h> : has MB_LEN_MAX2
o
o
o
o
o
o
3.1.2
Internal identifier significance at least 31 characters
•
o
•
o
•
•
3. 1.2. 2
Scope rules: file, function, prototype, and block
•
•
•
•
•
•
3.1. 2.3
Name space rules: variables, labels, tags, and
members
•
•
•
•
•
•
3.1 .2.3
Unique member name spaces
•
•
•
•
•
•
3. 1.2. 5
long double (even if same size as double)
•
•
•
•
•
o
3.1 .2.5
All unsigned types
•
•
•
•
•
•
3.1 .2.5
signed char
•
•
•
•
•
•
3.1 .2.6
Type-compatibility rules2
•
•
o
•
•
o
3. 1.3. 2
Constants: u, L, unsignedness rules
•
•
•
•
•
•
3.1. 3.4
Character constants with more than one char
0
o
o
o
•
•
3.1. 3.4
' \xFF'
•
/
•
•
•
/
3.1. 3.4
1 \ a * '\v'
•
/
•
•
•
•
3.1. 3.4
Wide characters: L'x' , L"x", wc*. mb*, wchar_t2
o
o
o
o
o
o
3.1.5
"Old-style" assignment operators are gone
•
•
•
•
•
•
3.2.1. 1
"Value-preserving” integer conversion rules
•
•
•
/
•
/
3.2.1. 5
Expressions with float operands have float type
/
•
•
•
•
/
3.2.2. 1
Address-of on array and function
•
•
o
/
/
•
3.2.2. 1
Call-through pointer (*pkg.fn) ( ) may be
written pkg.fn( )
•
•
•
•
•
•
3. 2. 2. 2
OK to cast void to void3
•
•
•
•
o
•
3. 2. 2. 3
Generic pointers: void *
•
•
•
•
•
•
3. 3. 2. 2
Prototype-with-default-sizes is compatible with
no-prototype
•
•
o
•
•
o
3. 3. 2. 2
Calling a prototyped function causes conversion
(as if by ass’t)
•
•
•
•
•
•
3. 3. 3. 3
Unary plus
•
•
•
•
•
o
3. 3. 3. 4
sizeof applies to any r-value expression
•
•
•
•
•
•
3.3.16.1
Structure assignment, return, and argument-passing
•
•
•
•
•
•
3. 5. 2. 2
enum and tag-scope rules1
•
•
•
•
•
•
3. 5. 2. 3
Tentative def for struct sb b;
0
o
o
o
•
o
3.5.3
const is independent qualifier of e.g. struct type
•
•
•
•
•
•
3.5.3
volatile preserves auto values modified after
setjmp
•
•
•
•
•
/
3.5.4
Ellipsis
•
•
•
•
•
o
3.5.4
Prototypes (for declarations)
•
•
•
•
•
•
3.5.4
Prototypes (for "new-style” definitions)
•
•
•
•
•
•
3.5.7 Elided-braces rules • •
1 Per 3/87 draft. 4 Per 4/88 draft. Key: • — Supported.
2 Per 1 2/87 draft. 5 Per 1 2/86 draft. / — Compiled but produced incorrect output.
3 Per 9/87 draft. O — Failed to compile.
•
•
•
•
index. In general, the compilers divided
themselves into three tiers: Watcom and
Microsoft, then Turbo and Zortech, and
finally Aztec and MetaWare.
Optimizing Tests
We tested the compilers’ ability to per¬
form the classic optimizations with a
benchmark developed by Melvin Klerer
and Hong Liu of Polytechnic University.
The benchmark comprises two function¬
ally equivalent C source files. The first,
NONOP, contains constructs that a good
optimizer should be able to improve. The
second, OP, is a preoptimized version of
NONOP. It’s written in an optimal man¬
ner so that an optimizer won’t be able to
squeeze much out of it.
NONOP is organized into sections,
each of which contains a particular opti-
mizable construct — common subexpres¬
sions, constants that are computable at
compile time, loop-invariant code, and
unnecessary copies. Each section iter-
174 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
PRODUCT FOCUS
OPTIMIZING C COMPILERS
Draft Description
reference
Turbo C
2.0
Aztec C
4. Id
Meta Ware C
1.4
Microsoft C
5.1
Watcom C
6.5
Zortech C
1.07
3.5.7
Autoaggregate initializers
•
O
•
O
•
O
3.5.7
union initializers (via first member)
•
0
•
o
•
o
3. 6.4. 2
Long-size switch labels
•
•
•
•
•
o
3.7.2
Tentative definition for static
O
o
O
o
•
o
3.8.1
#ifdef, #elif
O
•
•
•
•
•
3.8.1
No syntax-checking of skipped groups
•
•
•
•
•
•
3.8.2
^include macro-name
•
•
o
•
O
•
3.8.3
“Hiding” of macro names
•
•
•
•
•
•
3.8.3
Benign redefinition allowed
•
•
•
•
•
•
3.8.3
Preprocessor catenation and string-izing
/
•
o
•
o
/
3.8.5
New preprocessor directive ^pragma
•
•
o
•
•
•
3.8.8
Predefined macro names
o
/
o
o
•
o
4.1.3
<errno.h>1
•
•
o
o
•
•
4.1.5
<stddef.h> : of fsetof on nested struct member4
o
o
o
o
•
o
4.2
<assert.h>
•
•
•
•
•
•
4.3
<ctype.h>
•
•
•
•
•
•
4.4
<locale.h> : initial locale is "C”
o
o
o
o
•
o
4.4
localeconv, LC_CURRENCY, negative_sign4
0
o
o
0
0
o
4.5
<math.h>
•
•
•
•
•
•
4.5.1
Math library sets errno when required
•
•
o
o
•
/
4.6
<setjmp.h>
•
•
•
•
•
•
4.7
<signal.h>
o
/
o
•
•
0
4.8
<stdarg.h>
•
•
o
o
•
o
4.9
<stdio.h> : OK to include more than once
•
•
•
•
•
o
4.9.1
In <stdio.h> : F0PEN_MAX and FILENAME_MAX2
o
o
o
o
o
o
4.9.2
Stream and file semantics: opening, seeking,
text-binary
•
o
•
•
•
o
4.9.4
remove, rename
•
o
•
•
•
o
4.9.6
Full printf/scanf to new exact spec
•
/
•
/
/
/
4.9.6
scanf and ungetc push back independently2
•
o
•
•
/
o
4.9.6
v*printf, v*scanf
•
o
•
•
•
•
4.9.9
fsetpos, fgetpos
•
o
o
•
•
o
4.10
<stdlib.h>: hassize_t2
•
•
•
•
•
•
4.10.1
strtol, strtoul, strtod2
•
o
/
/
/
/
4.10.4
system, atexit, getenv, EXIT_SUCCESS,
EXIT_FAILURE5
/
o
o
o
/
o
4.10.6
div, ldiv
•
o
o
•
•
•
4.11
<string.h> : memset and strcmp
•
•
•
•
•
•
4.11.2
memmove, strstr1
•
o
o
/
•
/
4.11.6.2
strerror
•
o
/
•
•
•
4.12
<time.h>
•
•
•
•
•
•
4.12.2.2
difftime
/
o
/
•
•
/
4.12.3.5
strftime
/
o
/
/
•
o
ates inside a loop that’s weighted accord¬
ing to the frequencies (as measured by
Klerer and Liu) with which program¬
mers inadvertently use such constructs.
By far, the greatest weights are assigned
to routines executing constant folding
and local common subexpression optimi¬
zation.
The efficiency of a given compiler’s
optimizer is, in theory, simply NON-
OP’s time divided by OP’s time. The
ideal optimizing compiler would score 1 ,
as it would eliminate all the unneeded
code from NONOP. Higher scores indi¬
cate poorer performance.
Working with the benchmarks, we
found the presence or absence of a copro¬
cessor to be a significant factor. Both OP
and NONOP are math-intensive, relying
heavily on floating-point functions from
the function library. Moreover, since
NONOP may be forced to do more float¬
ing-point math than OP, a good (or poor)
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 175
PRODUCT FOCUS
OPTIMIZING C COMPILERS
An ANSI Conformance Sampler
After a 5-year effort, the X3J 1 1
committee unanimously voted last
September to forward a proposed stan¬
dard for C to ANSI for final approval.
No further changes are anticipated be¬
fore the standard's eventual publication
early this year
Now that it's clear exactly what stan¬
dard C will look like, most C program¬
mers will want to know how dose vari¬
ous compilers conform to the ANSI
standard, I have created a set of tests
that attempt to do just that.
The ANSI standard for C does not
have any subsets. There is no “partial
conformance" to this standard, and
there can be no “degrees of confor¬
mance/’ Vendors of C have been asked
not to specify or claim conformance to
any of the various working drafts, in¬
cluding the current proposed standard,
which will become a full American
standard only upon official publication
by ANSI, Even at that point, its accep¬
tance as an international standard de¬
pends on further decisions by the ap¬
propriate bodies of the International
Orga n i zat i on for S t a nd a rd i za t ion .
Nonetheless, until most compilers
achieve official certification, it's useful
to have an unofficial estimator of how
closely the compilers conform to this
new standard. This is the purpose of
SAMPLER. 88, which contains the C
source code for 79 compilable tests that
sample the closeness of a compiler to the
soon- to-be ANSI standard for C (for in¬
formation on obtaining the listing, see
Thomas Plum
page 3). SAMPLER is a limited subset
of the Plum Hall validation suite for C.
Test results for the six packages in the
Product Focus appear in table 2.
SAMPLER in no way attempts to
measure conformance to the standard.
It estimates the number of areas in
which a current compiler will need to be
modified to achieve eventual confor¬
mance to the standard. Compared to the
megabytes of source code in a full vali¬
dation suite forC, it's relatively tiny.
So much for caveats. On the positive
side, any compiler that embodies all the
features of the May 1988 draft would
pass all 79 of the tests in this file. Most
of the tests in SAMPLER reflect aspects
of ANSI C that have been unchanged
since mid- 1986; 13 tests reflect 1987
decisions, and 3 tests reflect 1988 deci¬
sions, When 1989 compilers start to sat¬
isfy all or most of these tests, program¬
mers will truly have syntactic por¬
tability inC.
As of the dale these tests were run,
several vendors already had beta-test
versions of their products that scored
substantially belter. Because of edito¬
rial lead times, some of these beta ver¬
sions will reach the market by the time
this article appears. Some vendors have
chosen to wait until the standard is an¬
nounced officially before releasing
compilers that are tracking the stan¬
dard, The point here is that you should
inquire about the current status of each
compiler that you are considering.
I wish to express my gratitude to the
authors of the six compilers for the con¬
tribution that they have made to the field
of programming. Each had unique per¬
sonal reasons for undertaking a project
of this magnitude .
Comparisons based on SAMPLER
are in no way meant as determinations
of the quality of these compilers; they
are simply a snapshot of one aspect of
the situation at this point in time,
A thorough validation of a compiler
requires much more work than SAM¬
PLER provides. The British Standards
Institution’s recent competitive evalua¬
tion has selected the Plum Hall valida¬
tion suite for C, It will be used by BSL
I MQ (of Italy), and AFNOR (France) in
the European C validation service. Our
goal is to allow programmers to write in
C with the certainty that, if ponably
written, their programs will work in
each new environment.
Thomas Plum is chairman of Plum Hall
and cocreator of the Plum Hall valida¬
tion suite for C He has been vice chair¬
man of the X3J11 committee since 1983
and is the author of five textbooks and
several curricula on C, including the
course used by Bell Labs , He can be
reached on BIX do “editors, "For infor¬
mation about the Plum Hall validation
suite for C, contact Joan Hall at (609)
927-3770. SAMPLER was written by
Thomas Plum and Ralph Ryan (presi¬
dent of Chiron Systems )f with assistance
from Joan Hall, Don Gallagher, and
Scott Erlich man.
math library can skew the results. Keep¬
ing this caveat in mind, as well as the
varying efficiencies of the code genera¬
tors, you can roughly gauge the effec¬
tiveness of the optimizers,
Microsoft and Meta Ware split top hon¬
ors in the two (with coprocessor and
without) environments, and where they
didn't win, they did show adequate per¬
formance. These two compilers are
known to have well -developed optimiz¬
ers, so the result is not surprising.
One odd result was Watcom's perfor¬
mance; tied for first in one environment
and dead last in the other. The more rep¬
resentative result is probably Watcom’s
good showing on the 80387-equipped
Compaq. While the compiler is not de¬
signed to optimize loops, it does support
most other source optimizations. In the
emulation environment, Watcom’s un¬
usually good raw times—particularly on
the OP test, which Watcom executed
more than twice as fast as its nearest
competitor— may, ironically, account for
its poor showing by magnifying idiosyn¬
crasies in the libraries,
80x86 Specifics
The classic optimizations are rooted in
textbook compiler design and can't take
into account the quirks of real-world pro¬
cessors. The 80x86 family, with its seg¬
mented architecture, specialized regis¬
ters, and dedicated string instructions,
represents anything but the ideal ma¬
chine around which to design a compiler.
To attain the execution speeds we've
seen these compilers display, their au¬
thors have had to address basic machine-
specific issues. For our system- specific
tests, we looked into the assembly lan¬
guage code generated by each compiler,
and we correlated that with execution
speed to gauge the efficiency of some
common and representative operations.
We wrote one function for each test,
stored them in separate files, and com¬
piled them with appropriate optimization
and assembly language- listing switches,
A separate (unoptimized) driver took
care of running and timing the tests.
The first tests examine register use.
We were looking for evidence that the
compilers can retain frequently used
variables in registers, rather than in
continued
176 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
PRODUCT FOCUS
OPTIMIZING C COMPILERS
Table 3: Benchmark results. We ran each test twice, once on a Compaq 386 portable equipped with an 80387 floating¬
point unit, and once on a Northgate 386 with no coprocessor. The specifics of each test are discussed in the text.
Indexes represent an overall summary of a compiler’s performance in a given area. Higher numbers are better, and a 1.00
is the highest possible score. The indexes are calculated by normalizing each test result against the best time for any
compiler; the mean of these normalized figures becomes the index for a given group of tests ( low-level , XLisp,
optimization, and system-dependent). The compile time and code size index are calculated in the same way using results
generated for each group.
Borland Manx MetaWare C Microsoft C Watcom C Zortech C
Turbo C Aztec C86
Low-level
Compile time1
10.91
13.95
19.88
21.61
33.97
56.49
30.30
32.41
27.71
40.78
23.25
25.79
EXE size
17,508
27,348
10,862
13,712
22,512
29,632
23,372
24,883
16,000
18,200
23,594
23,746
Register int
0.41
0.44
0.40
0.43
0.38
0.43
0.38
0.41
0.25
0.30
0.37
0.41
Auto short
0.46
0.51
0.52
0.54
0.39
0.45
0.37
0.40
0.26
0.31
0.37
0.41
Auto long
1.20
1.30
1.34
1.42
1.15
1.32
1.24
1.40
0.96
1.03
1.16
1.31
Int multiply
1.20
1.50
1.46
1.68
1.46
1.69
1.15
1.40
1.19
1.48
1.18
1.47
Function call/return
1.50
1.50
1.55
1.53
1.52
1.53
1.52
1.50
1.43
1.44
1.53
1.54
Auto double
5.25
80.00
5.05
39.55
4.53
62.20
3.24
26.00
3.08
17.60
6.02
23.50
XLisp
Compile time1
50.53
68.60
222.25
218.28
344.19
598.96
293.03
320.822
no
CD
0
GO
317.31
242.66
218.69
.EXEsize
55,658
65,498
52,388
56,444
58,944
68,816
62,646
66,334
45,474 |
50,096
61,662
62,198
Float
14.97
27.80
16.30
20.65
15.11
20.71
14.59
17.49
14.72
16.86
14.61
17.35
Integer sort
41.29
42.50
50.88
50.88
41.22
41.91
36.52
37.46
32.62
33.83
53.82
56.30
Float sort
34.26
38.85
44.57
45.26
36.06
37.74
32.22
33.45
28.73
29.88
47.13
49.49
Write file
13.32
14.40
14.86
15.38
15.87
16.42
13.27
13.29
13.29
13.40
12.52
13.04
Read file
12.31
13.77
14.50
14.83
14.61
16.50
11.89
13.76
11.72
13.41
11.95
12.80
Function calls
14.99
16.51
17.98
18.45
16.31
16.81
14.39
15.02
13.78
14.89
14.72
15.59
Sieve
53.41
55.27
57.62
58.41
54.98
56.35
53.34
55.09
56.66
60.23
55.75
58.05
Optimization
Compile time1
14.64
15.82
26.59
31.04
42.42
78.10
45.15
49.13
47.71
102.00
54.52
59.81
EXE size
40,832
60,512
25,336
32,456
54,528
72,272
47,942
63,526
35,888
46,516
30,856
54,902
OP
5.40
62.70
7.20
63. 93
4.50
51.10
3.50
60.1 4
4.70
22.80
5.80
45.10
NONOP
7.10
98.80
16.70
195.73
5.45
100.00
4.40
86.I4
5.80
76.20
9.20
110.50
NONOP /OP5
1.3
1.6
2.3
33
1.2
2.0
1.3
1.4
1.2
3.3
1.6
2.5
Object-level
Compile time1
11.79
19.83
25.45
20.87
60.94
109.94
52.25
41.36
30.10
39.44
35.07
27.43
EXE size
26,242
26,242
10,050
11,476
21,760
26,784
31,218
28,806
18,426
18,426
15,434
15,570
Register usage
14.78
16.43
15.30
16.45
14.25
14.82
15.05
16.36
12.09
12.79
14.25
15.27
Pointer arithmetic
25.60
26.62
41.80
40.89
38.70
37.63
17.06
18.18
17.46
19.49
15.35
18.19
32-bit arithmetic
4.07
4.26
4.18
5.19
4.04
4.55
3.54
4.38
2.04
2.08
4.01
4.83
strncmp function
17.47
18.30
7.78
8.18
39.63
40.70
17.85
18.70
4.67
4.50
19.88
20.82
strncpy function
20.60
24.76
34.01
36.52
21.66
25.04
33.64
36.36
42.62
45.97
23.40
17.71
Minimum XLisp size5
64,490
56,444
67,136
65,230
49,788
61,138
Compile time index
1.00
1.00
0.45
0.60
0.25
0.19
0.27
0.36
0.32
0.30
0.32
0.46
Code size index
0.61
0.63
0.97
0.94
0.55
0.59
0.51
0.62
0.73
0.85
0.67
0.72
Plum index
0.75
0.70
0.69
0.70
0.76
0.70
0.84
0.81
0.99
0.99
0.77
0.82
XLisp index
0.92
0.85
0.79
0.80
0.85
0.84
0.95
0.96
0.98
0.98
0.87
0.87
OPT index
0.78
0.74
0.45
0.42
0.90
0.67
0.98
0.82
0.87
0.71
0.65
0.59
System index
0.64
0.64
0.57
0.57
0.56
0.58
0.63
0.64
0.87
0.89
0.69
0.67
Times for the low-level benchmarks are in microseconds; all other times are in seconds. File sizes are in bytes. For each compiler, coprocessor times appear in the left column and
emulator times in the right column.
1 Compile times include times for compile, assemble, and link.
2 Intrinsic function optimizations disabled; failed to compile with option enabled.
3 finod function used in optimizing benchmark not supported in emulator library; used function provided by Manx.
1 4 Emulator library used rather than Alternate Math library.
s Score weighted twice in index calculation.
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 177
PRODUCT FOCUS
OPTIMIZING C COMPILERS
memory. We used the following code
fragment:
iFunction
(al, a2,b,cl,c2,dl,d2)
a = al + a2 + b;
c = cl + c2 + b;
d = dl + d2 + b;
return a+c+d;
And we anticipated that an efficient com¬
piler would generate an assembly lan¬
guage listing like this:
MOV
AX, [BP+al offset]
ADD
AX, [BP+a2 offset]
MOV
BX, [BP+b offset]
ADD
AX,BX
ADD
AX, [BP+cl offset]
ADD
AX, [BP+c2 offset]
ADD
AX,BX
which keeps the frequently used variable
b in BX and keeps a running total of the
return value in the return register.
Watcom turned in an outstanding time
here, 12 seconds compared to the average
14.5. The assembly language code also
came closest to our ideal. Watcom keeps
b in a register, keeps subtotals in other
registers, and never makes a single swap
to memory. The compiler also passes ar¬
guments in registers rather than on the
stack, as is customary. This fascinating
strategy contributed here and elsewhere
to Watcom’ s outstanding performance by
reducing memory accesses to an absolute
minimum.
While it’s true that arguments must be
moved to registers by the calling func¬
tion, the additional overhead of passing
arguments on the stack is eliminated.
Most compilers push the addresses of
variables onto the stack, call the subrou¬
tine, and load the register using their ad¬
dresses. Watcom ’s method involves only
one transfer, directly from memory to
register.
Zortech also scored well on the regis¬
ter usage test. The emitted code does
keep all variables in memory, but it
keeps the subtotals in registers and
makes the final add (for the return value)
by simply adding registers. MetaWare’s
close finish can be attributed to its simi¬
lar scheme.
While Turbo does keep b in a register
(SI), its subtotaling in memory did cost
some time. Microsoft and Aztec seem to
be the least efficient on this common op¬
eration, as they swap every variable in
and out of memory.
A similar test involves the efficient
manipulation of pointers. Consider the
following code fragment:
int a,i,*p;
for (i=0; i< ITERATIONS ;++i)
a+=*(p+i);
We expected the compilers to recognize
that p is loop-invariant and to keep it as
the source index, which would produce
code like this:
LO: MOV BX,CX ;i is in cx
SHL BX, 1 ; multiply for 16
bit
ADD AX, [SI+BX]; accumulate a
INC CX ; increment index
CMP CX, ITERATIONS ; check
Microsoft did us one better, however. It
first compared ITERATIONS to zero,
and it was prepared to exit immediately if
the result were true. That wasn’t the
case, so it then moved *p into SI as antici¬
pated, but it also moved ITERATIONS
into CX. With this arrangement, the
code simply LOOPed around a fragment
containing nothing but
ADD DX,W0RD PTR [SI]; a is in DX
ADD SI, 2
The LOOP command continues CX
times. While the loop uses an ADD
rather than the more efficient INC, it
does eliminate a number of instructions.
The LOOP construct is also far more ef¬
ficient than the CMP and JLE combina¬
tion. It hadn’t occurred to us that the loop
index itself is unnecessary in an incre¬
ment-only loop.
Zortech, which actually came in first
in this test, was the only other compiler
that eliminated the loop index. It pro¬
duced code similar to Microsoft’s, but it
used the CMP rather than the LOOP
scheme to check the index. Where Zor¬
tech gained ground was in its initializa¬
tion routine, which was significantly
shorter than Microsoft’s. To test this, we
cranked up the number of ITERATIONS
to make the loop time the dominant in¬
fluence on overall time; this time,
Microsoft finished first.
In fact, only the two compilers that
finished last on our timing, MetaWare
and Aztec, produced the base-plus-offset
[BX + SI] instruction we had anticipated.
Watcom and Turbo scored well by resist¬
ing the temptation to swap variables to
memory wherever possible.
Our third test was simply to determine
the ability of the compiler to do 32-bit
arithmetic. Only MetaWare’s compiler
supports 80386-specific code, so we ex¬
pected the C expression
long a,b,c;
a=b+c;
to translate to
MOV EAX,B
ADD EAX,C
MOV A,EAX
only in MetaWare’s case. In reality, all
the compilers produced the same code,
and none of them used the 80386-spe¬
cific instructions. MetaWare explained
that doing so would be dangerous if the
resulting application were to be used
under any operating system that needed
to switch from real to protected mode.
As a result, the times for all the com¬
pilers were similar, but Watcom’s effi¬
cient register use put it over the top.
String operations occur frequently in
C (indeed, in any language), and the
80x86 family’s specialized string in¬
structions make it almost the perfect ve¬
hicle for the string-oriented functions
that an ANSI C compiler must provide.
We took the following two functions,
strncmp and strncpy, and used a de¬
bugger to determine exactly how strings
were handled.
Timing the strncmp function led to
some interesting results. The function is
designed to compare n characters in two
strings and determine whether or not the
strings are equal, and, if not equal, to de¬
termine which one is lexicographically
greater. Characters in each string are
compared only as long as they are equal;
the first differing character causes the
function to return.
We expected that the most efficient
compilers would use the string-specific
REPeatwhileEqual CoMPareString con¬
struct rather than comparing and looping
with each element in the string.
Our test used two nonequal strings.
Watcom’s compiler, though it used the
less efficient compare and jump method,
gave an outstanding performance. Every
compiler but Watcom first scans the
strings to determine their lengths, com¬
pares this to n, and uses whichever value
is lowest as a loop index. It’s in that loop
that REP CMPSB is used to compare the
strings by an efficient compiler. Wat¬
com’s first action is to compare the
strings; it then continues to loop until n
decrements to zero or until the program
reaches a null terminator in one of the
strings. Because the initial scan was
skipped, Watcom turned in an excellent
score.
To further explore this aberration, we
reran the test with equal strings. Watcom
fared very poorly, at 64.2 seconds on the
continued
178 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
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FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 179
Circle 195 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS; 196)
PRODUCT FOCUS
OPTIMIZING C COMPILERS
Compaq, compared with 4.67 seconds
when the strings were equal.
Turbo's compiler, which used the
CMPSB instruction, turned in a good
score at 17,47 seconds. In contrast to
Watcom, Turbo's score increased to only
28,28 seconds when equal strings were
used. All the other compilers used com¬
binations of SCAnString and loop in¬
structions, Aztec's compiler proved to be
particularly efficient, comparing words
(LODSW,$CASW) rather than bytes as
an initial check for equality.
The strnepy timing yielded less-sur¬
prising results. The strnepy function
copies n characters from one string to an¬
other. It needs to determine whether the
first string is actually n characters Jong,
and it does so by looking for a null termi¬
nation. We expected the copy part of the
loop to be built around a MOVeString
instruction.
All the compilers we examined used
this construct. Only Watcom didn't gen-
NIL 8051 * ’ .
BUGS FAST. *
4s Ip Flit fer Trace
Kin Macro 14 Ln nlae Sourcdfcb.
THU _ 00 BKx Breakpoint register*
IFIUU _ 08 TL0 _ 00 BESx Breakpoint in Co SI on node I
ICON _ 00 nit _ 00 TBH Bre*. on Trace trig
■ CQ1II HlrUKJM. BFS1 Breakpoint Mode Register
r - flnt; /» Ini Ha Si- Set Line Breakpoint*
- 0k4E; SUt Set Una Bre^Poinh NEC
alue - 0; 33 Break on Internal bit
counter - ftrit; Initiii SL Set Une BrukPoii
valve “ tf*4E; SUt Set Una BreakPoii
I as Lvalue ■ B; BB Break on internal
value ■ nwdJjlt(P3_B_bitn iTfltk jTpJfflXMT
if ((value — l) II ( loi Lvalue CLb Clear breakpoint*
If (counter - 1MJ IB Internal Break on pattern j
counter - 0; SIC Break on Internal Contents’
else - - - 7=5 -
countor++i
laxt.valuc - value;
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180 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 1 70 on Reader Service Card
crate code using the REP prefix, and it
finished last on the benchmark. Turbo
and Meta Ware, which virtually tied for
the best scores, use the REP prefix both
to move the string and to scan (SCAS) the
first string to determine its length.
Compilers Up Close
The benchmark figures say a lot about
each package, but they can't tell the
whole story. Each compiler has features
that simply can't be benchmarked, like
an integrated debugger or library func¬
tions that transcend the ANSI standard.
While one may be an excellent perform¬
er, it may be so difficult to use that it in¬
timidates newcomers to the language.
In the following sections, we describe
some of these features that can make the
difference between an outstanding com¬
piler and one that is merely so-so. The
products appear below in alphabetical
order.
Borland Turbo C Professional 2.0
Borland has a well-deserved reputation
for pricing good software so that users on
a limited budget can get in on the action.
This is no exception: The Professional
version, which includes an integrated en¬
vironment, Turbo's Assembler, and the
Turbo Debugger, sells for $250, It runs
under DOS 2,0 or higher and requires
44 8K bytes of RAM and two floppy disk
drives.
The integrated environment is win¬
dow-oriented; from within it, you can
edit, compile, and debug programs with¬
out exiting to DOS. A project facility is
the integrated environment's version of
make; you use it to specify multiple files
to be compiled and linked. The compiler
itself, which can be used either in the en¬
vironment or from the command line,
adds to the ANSI standard the ability to
include in-line assembly language code
in a remarkably flexible manner. And it
compiles faster— much faster— than any
other compiler we reviewed.
The best addition to this already well-
received package is the new Turbo De¬
bugger. It’s provided as a stand-alone
supplement to the debugger that comes
with the integrated environment. In addi¬
tion to breakpoints and watchpoints.
Turbo C features a powerful data in¬
spector that can unpack and display en¬
tire structures. Because the inspector
works in conjunction with the source-
level trace facility, you can literally see
those structures change.
If you have an 80386 system and plenty
of extended memory, you can use this de¬
bugger in so-called virtual mode— and
continued
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desire to program in C\ or want a more powerful C compiler, get a copy of
Power CP*
Michael Corfese
Computer Shopper, August 88 (Review)
“The Ctrace debugger is where Mix really shines. It is magnificent. Ids not
only better than the stripped down debugger Microsoft includes with Quick C,
ids better than the full debugger Microsoft provides with its high-end
compiler (Codeview).”
David Weinberger
Computer Shopper, November 88 (Review)
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For technical support call: 1-214-783-6001
Minimum Syslem Requirements:
DOS 2.0 or later. 320K memory, 2 floppy drives or hard drive.
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PRODUCT FOCUS
OPTIMIZING C COMPILERS
get most of the benefits of a hardware de¬
bugger. It installs itself in memory above
1 megabyte and monitors the execution of
the subject program on a virtual 8086.
As with hardware debuggers, you can
watch a region of memory with minimal
performance degradation.
All in all, it’s quite an impressive
package. Turbo C won’t give you the
fastest code or the smallest executable,
but it’s definitely the one that is the most
fun to use.
Manx Aztec C86 4. Id
One of the C language’s greatest selling
points is portability. Manx takes full ad¬
vantage of this by offering a C compiler
for several operating systems, including
this version for MS-DOS. It runs on sys¬
tems with a minimum of DOS 2.0, 384K
bytes of RAM, and two floppy disk
drives.
The $499 package is fully featured; an
editor, linker, librarian, and source-level
debugger come bundled with the com¬
piler. The commercial version also in¬
cludes object modules for generating
code suitable for ROM programming and
additional programming utilities.
While the compiler produces some ef¬
ficient and compact code, benchmark
scores were generally poor. The library
functions, especially those involving the
coprocessor, exhibited some obscure
bugs, surprising in such a mature prod¬
uct. Source-level debugging is com¬
mand-oriented and can be very efficient,
but the debugger lacks the sexy window-
oriented features supported by its current
competition.
The compiler does support some un¬
usual features designed to maintain com¬
patibility with Aztec C for Unix systems.
Since some of these are not ANSI stan¬
dard, they can be enabled or disabled
with a compiler switch. It makes for an
easy transition between Aztec’s Unix
and DOS C compilers.
Overall, Aztec C suffers more than it
benefits from its long and diverse heri¬
tage. The compiler seems to be a product
made to fit in the DOS environment
rather than designed for it; the poorly or¬
ganized documentation (designed for use
with different Aztec C compilers) exem¬
plifies that problem.
MetaWare High C 286 1.4
A quick tour of table 1 may lead you to
believe that High C lacks some of the
basics, but that’s not true. High C isn’t as
easy to use as some of the others, but it
does everything an ANSI C compiler has
to do and then some. The package re¬
quires 384K bytes of RAM and a hard
disk drive, and it supports DOS 2.0 and
higher.
MetaWare’s extensions to C create a
potent new dialect of the language: You
can mix declarations and statements, use
ranges in conjunction with case state¬
ments, write nested functions a la Pas¬
cal, and associate parameters by name,
as in Ada. MetaWare also offers, as a
$100 option, library support for OS/2 de¬
velopment.
While ranged case statements and in¬
termixed declarations may buy some
convenience, they are minor enhance¬
ments to C compared to the wholesale
changes brought on by the Pascal- and
Ada-like additions. Nested functions en¬
able the programmer to define functions
within other functions, with the inner
function retaining all the variables local
to the outer function. This makes pointer
passing unnecessary when variables
need to be modified by an external func¬
tion and simply makes code cleaner.
continued
182 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
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C Database Toolchest and Power C are trademarks of M«* Software QuickC and Microsoft C are registered trademarks o» Microsoft Turbo C is a registered trademark of Bodand dBASE is a registered trademark of Ashton Tate
Circle 160 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 183
PRODUCT FOCUS
OPTIMIZING C COMPILERS
Company Information
Borland International, Inc.
Microsoft Corp,
1800 Green Hills Rd.
16011 Northeast 36th Wav
P.O.Box 660001
P.O, Box 97017
Scott s Valley, CA 95066
Redmond, WA 98073
(800) 543-7543
(800) 426-9400
(408) 438-8400
Inquiry 1043.
Inquiry 1040.
Watcom
Manx Soft wa re Syst cm s , Inc.
415 Phillip Sl
P.O. Box 55
Waterloo, Ontario
Shrewsbury, NJ 07701
Canada N2L 3X2
(800) 221-0440
(800) 265-4555
Inquiry 1041.
Inquiry 1044.
Meta Ware, Inc.
Zortech, Inc.
903 Pacific Ave.( Suite 201
366 Massachusetts Ave ,
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Arlington, MA 02174
(408) 429-6382
(800) 848-8408
Inquiry 1042.
Inquiry 1045,
1
Exxon
2
General Motors
3
Mobil
4
Ford Motor
5
IBM
6
Texaco
7
E l du Pont
8
Standard Oil find )
9
Standard Oil of Cal
10
General Electric
11
Gull Oil
12
Atlantic Richfield
13
Shell Oil
14
Occidental Petroleum
IS
US Sieel
16
Phillips Petroleum
_ LZ _
_ Sun _
27
Americans
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And guess
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Every year, functional
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But your company can
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Call the Coalition for
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A literate
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Named parameter associations let you
pass function arguments by name rather
than position, again making the source
code easier to understand.
But for $595, Meta Ware ought to sup¬
ply a full complement of tools. While
there are some Unix-like utilities, there
is no debugger, library utility, or make
utility; the package doesn't even include
a linker. That may not be an issue for the
professional programming audience that
High C targets, but it certainly makes the
compiler a poor choice for novice or ca¬
sual C programmers.
Microsoft C 5.1
Version 5,1 of the Microsoft C compiler
adds OS/2 support to the excellent DOS-
only version 5,0, The package includes
the compiler, a debugger, and a set of
real- and protected-mode libraries for
$450. The package supports Microsoft
OS/2 1 .0 or DOS 2, 1 and higher, and it
requires at least 448K bytes of RAM ami
a hard disk drive,
A number of unusual features supple¬
ment its fine performance on our bench¬
marks. One of them, of course, is the
ability to develop OS/2 applications. The
package includes library functions for
OS/2 and a bind utility that creates bound
executables suitable for both real- and
protected-mode execution. The package
also offers support for developing Win¬
dows applications.
Also included is QuickC, which im¬
plements an integrated environment for
fast development. QuickC favors ease of
use over a full-fledged optimization and
debugging capability. The combination
of QuickC with the standard compiler
and its CodeView debugger endows
Microsoft C with a development versatil¬
ity shared only by Watcom C ,
Microsoft’s CodeView debugger isn’t
quite as easy to use as Turbo C's, but
they share most of the same features.
There’s also a librarian, a make utility,
and a programmable text editor.
There's little not to like in the overall
package. The function libraries support
screen graphics as well as DOS and BIOS
calls. The documentation is excellent. If
anything is missing, it’s the lack of the
#asm preprocessor directive for includ¬
ing in-line assembly, but that one small
(non-ANSI) flaw is hard to hold against
an otherwise superior product.
Watcom C 6,5
This compiler isn’t quite as slick as
Microsoft's, and it doesn’t have as many
features. What it does have, however, is
excellent code generation that translates
into unmatched execution speed. We ran
lots of tests; Watcom took more blue rib¬
bons than any other compiler.
Watcom ’s $495 compiler invites com¬
parison with Microsoft’s. It, too, in¬
cludes an editor, debugger, and separate
integrated environment compiler, There
are also library, make, and disassembler
utilities. To run it, you need at least DOS
2 ,0 , 5 1 2K bytes of R A M , and two floppy
diskdrives.
Watcom ’s compiler turned out to be
the most ANSI -compatible, according to
continued
184 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
C Programmers
Proof is in the Performance
cIdlFILE provides faster file management
Proven performer
db_FILE m from Raima is the only file manager you'll ever need. Other file managers deliver
B-tree/ISAM capabilities, but they slow down as the application increases in size or com-
plexity. Only db_F!LE combines B-tree/ISAM capabilities with full network model
database capabilities. The result: You get more file management for less! Thousands of C
_ programmers in over 50 countries worldwide use db_FILE. And, it's fast, 100 % faster
than the closest competition. So, for building applications that feature fast data
access, whether simple or complex, db _F1LE is the proven performer.
Proven portability
db_FlLE is written entirely in C for optimum portability* Unlike others,
dh_FILE is not limited to MS-DOS, so your db_FILE applications will
run in any environment that supports the C language. Source code is
available, allowing you to optimize performance or port to new
environments yourself.
6
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More proof - db_l\ET(\IEVE “ SQL-based Query
You can add even more performance with db_RETRIEVE1.sl
It provides the familiar relational view, through SQL, of
a db FILE network model databas e.. without sacrificing
the performance! Source code is also available*
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File Structure:
Based on B-tree indexing and
network database model. Both
access methods may be used inde¬
pendently or in combination for
real power*
Data Types Supported:
Standard C data types plus dbjiddr
for user created structures
Transaction processing supported
Not RAM resident
Operating Systems Supported:
UNIX, XENIX, MS DOS, Macintosh;
Microsoft Windows compatible
C Compilers Supported:
UNIX, XENIX, Microsoft, Lattice,
TurboC, LightspeedC, MPW
Hardware Independent
Major LANs Supported
db_FILE is upwardly compatible
with Raima's db.VISTA 111
Database Development System.
Final proof - the price.
You can't buy this much power for less!
Both dbJPILE and db RETRIEVE feature free
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Call us today, and prove it to yourself.
Single-User Object
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For -the name of your dbJFILE distributor.
CALL: 1-800-db-RAIMA
(that's 1-800-327-2462)
Ask about the many other products and services
Raima Corporation offers, including consulting,
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TM
CORPORATION
s
Raima Corporation 3245 146 th Place S.E., Bellevue, WA 98007 USA (2061747-5570 Telex: 6503018237 MCI UW FAX: <206)747-1991 In Texas call: (214)231-3131
International: U.K.: (0992) 500919 Germany: 071 27/5244 Switzerland: (0U725 04 10 France: (047.72,77. 77 Benelux: [+31 K(0)2IS9K6 814 Sweden: (013)124780
Finland: (90)42 051 Italy: (Oil) 546354 ur (030)50068 India: (812)569622 © 1988 Raima Corporation
Circle 252 on Reader Service Card
PRODUCT FOCUS
OPTIMIZING C COMPILERS
"C"
Programmers
Introducing ZB_LIBR, a collection of
basic math and string handling routines
for the C programmer. Designed with
the novice programmer In mind,
ZB_LIBR Is a good starting platform
for a variety of programs.
Over 40 routines to fill your basic pro¬
gramming needs.
** FINANCIAL **
A complete, full featured financial rou¬
tine. Calculates present value, future
value, number of payments, periodic
payment, and Interest rate. Handles
user specified payment and compound¬
ing frequencies, discrete or continuous
compounding, and beginning or end of
period calculations.
"DATE and TIME**
To and from TRUE Julian Day Numbers
(for date packing, days between dates,
day of week), leap years, validity check¬
ing, several date and time conversions,
date formatting, more.
** STRING HANDLING **
Translation, compaction, tokenlzlng,
substring extraction and location, Justi¬
fication (L,R, Cent, Spilt), more.
** MATH FUNCTIONS **
Combinations, permutations, two ran¬
dom number generators (field lab
grade), gausslan random numbers,
round lrig, fractions, more.
For Microsoft C 5.x, Microsoft QuickC,
and Borland’s Turbo C. Complete with
commented source code, examples,
batch routines, and an 80 page manual.
Of course you get a 30 day money back
guarantee.
IDEAL FOR THOSE LEARNING ’C\
Special Introductory price of $37.00 plus
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186 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
our validation suite. Extensions to the
standard include the near, far, cdecl,
pascal, and fortran identifiers found
in most other compilers we reviewed.
Watcom also makes extensive use of
pragmas (i.e., compiler directives). You
can use these to specify the registers
used when making function calls (even
to the 80x87) and to invoke calling con¬
ventions that may or may not be like
those in C. This feature adds flexibility
to the highly efficient method of passing
function arguments in registers.
Some ease-of-use features are miss¬
ing. While the C driver supports wild¬
card filenames, the compiler command
line does not. And the debugger, though
window-oriented, isn’t as intuitive as
that of some other packages.
A new release scheduled for introduc¬
tion early this year promises to improve
Watcom’s optimizing capabilities. Ac¬
cording to the company, the new product
will focus on the classic optimizations,
adding even more power to an already
well-built compiler.
Zortech C 1.07
This stand-alone version of the C com¬
piler included with Zortech’s C + +
package may well make a name for itself
in the heavyweight C arena. The inex¬
pensive ($89.95) compiler lacks some of
the features of those in the $400 range,
but it posted good scores on our bench¬
mark tests, often delivering better times
than the more expensive products. The
product runs in 512K bytes of RAM and
requires at least DOS 2.0 and two floppy
diskdrives.
Zortech C isn’t a bare-bones com¬
piler, however. It includes an integrated
editor/compiler with WordStar-like edit¬
ing commands, and you can make pro¬
grams compiled with Zortech C compat¬
ible with the Microsoft CodeView
debugger. According to Zortech, a new
release that includes its own source-level
debugger should be available by the time
you read this.
Only one library is included, in con¬
trast to the usual standard C function li¬
brary, math library, and additional math
library for floating-point emulations.
The single library produces both 80x87
and emulated math code. Zortech’s far
better relative performance on our ma¬
chine without an 80387 indicates that its
emulation functions are much more effi¬
cient than its coprocessor code.
Two nonstandard preprocessor direc¬
tives are supported— ^message, which
prints a message during compilation, and
#exit, which sets the error level and
makes a clean exit from an aborted com¬
pile. Additional nonstandard features in¬
clude library support for the Microsoft
Mouse and for sound functions.
Optimized Choices
Our XLisp benchmark, an example of a
complex and realistic application,
showed how close these compilers really
are. While one may have good library
functions and another excellent source
optimizations, for instance, overall per¬
formance of any of these compilers fits
within a fairly small window.
Watcom and Microsoft are the two ob¬
vious performance standouts, splitting
virtually all our tests for execution
speed. While both are good in all areas,
they have their own specialties; Watcom
is definitely the leader in object-level op¬
timizations, while Microsoft is strongest
on the source level. Watcom’s object-
level expertise is evident in all the test re¬
sults, and it is well matched to its target
processor.
For flat-out executable speed, Wat¬
com’s compiler was the clear winner.
Microsoft finished a close second. Since
speed is most valuable when coupled
with functionality, it pays to compare
these two in the features table as well.
Both compilers sport an impressive list
of features, but OS/2 support and a better
debugger give Microsoft a slight edge in
that category.
If speed is absolutely critical and OS/2
compatibility isn’t, choose Watcom. If
you want to do OS/2 development now,
you’ll obviously choose Microsoft; and
even if you’re not developing for OS/2,
you might still prefer Microsoft’s friend¬
lier and more powerful tools.
Finally, the other compilers have
points in their favor. Turbo has by far the
fastest compilation times and the best
source debugger. Aztec produces the
smallest executables. MetaWare com¬
bines excellent optimization with valu¬
able language extensions. And Zortech
does everything that a compiler has to
do— at an attractive price. ■
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We’d like to thank Melvin Klerer and
Hong Liu of the Department of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science at
Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, New
York, and Thomas Plum, chairman of
Plum Hall in Cardiff, New Jersey, for
their assistance in providing the set of
tests used in this article.
Steve Apiki is a BYTE Lab testing editor,
and Jon Udell is a BYTE technical editor.
They can be reached on BIX as “apiki ’’
and “judell, ” respectively.
GFX Fonts & Menus. . .
See what you've been missing
Your C graphics library may be OK
for drawing lines, circles, and pie
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Whether you're using a stand-alone
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Menu items can be
selected with mouse
or keyboard.
Use the scroll box to
choose an item from 3s
a long list.
Easy text and data entry.
Messages and warnings
are a snap.
Scroll the list and
select an entry
with mouse or
keyboard
Use icons to choose
an action.
Over a megabyte
of fonts and icons
ACTUAL
PHOTO
The Graphics Toolkit for
Contemporary Software Developers
Already the fastest and most
powerful graphics toolkit on the
market, the new HALO® delivers
subroutines and device support for
exciting, contemporary applications
in publishing, office automation,
vision, and image processing.
HALO '88 is a device independent
library of 190 graphics subroutines*
It is compatible with 18
programming languages, and over
140 hardware devices such as image
scanners; graphics, vision, and
imaging boards; printers and
plotters; and mice, HALO '88 is
designed for the complete IBM
compatible microcomputer line
including the PS/2 and VGA.
Today's Tools for
Tomorrow's
Applications
HALO '88 has new subroutines
which control scanners and scanned
images — even images which are
larger than screen resolution and
available memory. Extended
character set support enables
software developers to address IBM's
full 255 characters in graphics and to
design foreign language fonts.
Among contemporary HALO '88
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HALO has an installed base of
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HALO is a register^ trademark tif Media Cybernetics, Inc.
IBM PS/2, VGA and OS/2 are registered trademarks of
International Business Machines Corp
System Review
The Zenith SupersPort
286 and Mitsubishi
MP-286L typify
the current crop
of portable computers
John Unger
A Pai r of
Sophisticated
Laptops _
For a number of years, there were
two distinct types of portable
computers. First on the scene
were the AC-powered Osborne,
Kaypro, and Compaq portables; they of¬
fered desktop power combined with
heavy weight and bulk. Next came the
laptops, such as the Tandy Model 100,
which initially appeared as battery-
powered microcomputers that sacrificed
computing power, storage capacity, and
ergonomics for convenience, size, and
portability. Each type of portable had its
inherent advantages.
Today the distinctions between these
two classes have blurred as the AC-
powered portables have shrunk in size
and the battery-powered laptops have in¬
creased their processor horsepower and
features. The Zenith SupersPort 286 and
the Mitsubishi MP-286L represent the
merging of the two classes of microcom¬
puters into mature, sophisticated ma¬
chines that have the best features of both.
With the current generation of laptops,
exemplified by the SupersPort 286 and
MP-2S6L, you truly have the computing
power of a desktop or transportable ma¬
chine and the convenient size and weight
of a laptop computer.
As similar as these two computers are,
they are clearly designed for two differ¬
ent types of users. Zenith has tried to
make the SupersPort 286 one of the best-
performing battery-powered laptops*
while Lhe Mitsubishi MP-286L appears
to be offered as a high-performance*
lower-cost alternative to other AC-
powered 80286-based laptops* such as
the Toshiba T31G0 and T3200 and the
larger transportable computers like the
Compaq Portable III*
Under the Skin
These two machines share many of the
same hardware characteristics. Both fea¬
ture 80286 processors running at 12
MHz* a I 44-megabyte 3 Vi-inch floppy
disk drive, and a 20- or 40-megabyte
hard disk drive. My Zenith SupersPort
286 review unit had a 40-megabyte hard
diskdrive* 1 megabyte of zero- wait- state
RAM, and an optional internal modem;
t he M i tsubish i M P-286L ca me with a 20-
megabyte hard disk drive and 640K bytes
of RAM with one wait state. The Super¬
sPort \s list price with a 20-megabyte
hard disk drive is $4999; a similarly con¬
figured M P-286 L costs $3995. If you
substitute a 40-megabyte drive in the Su¬
persPort, the price jumps to $5599,
Both computers have connectors for an
optional external keypad, a Cen t tonics -
compatible parallel printer port* a nine-
pin RS-232C serial port (the MP-286L
has two serial ports), a connector for an
external 36QK-byte 5 Va -inch floppy disk
drive, and a nine-pin RGB connector for
an external CGA monitor.
Where these systems diverge is in their
power sources. The SupersPort 286 has
three major components; the main laptop
unit, a removable nickel-cadmium 48-
watt- hour battery pack* and an external
DC power supply /battery charger. The
basic computer weighs IOV2 pounds, but
you must also attach either the 1 -pound
power supply or the 4-pound battery. Ze¬
nith has gone to great lengths to cut
power consumption to make a battery-
powered portable practical The Super¬
sPort uses CMOS versions of both the
80286 CPU and optional 80287 math co¬
processor chips; this cuts down on both
power and heat and makes it unnecessary
for this laptop to have a cooling fan.
The SupersPort has a useful monitor/
setup program in ROM that is easily in¬
voked with a Ctrl-Alt-lnscrt key combi¬
nation* With this ROM -based software,
you can perform a variety of tests and
make system changes* To conserve bat¬
tery power, you can use the monitor pro¬
gram to disable the optional internal
modem, to turn off the parallel porls
circuits, to select the amount of time that
the display's backlighting remains on
when there is no keyboard activity, and
continued
Circle 143 on Reader Sendee Card (DEALERS: 144)
FEBRUARY 19S9 * B YT E 189
REVIEW
A PAIR OF SOPHISTICATED LAPTOPS
Zenith SupersPort 286
Mitsubishi MP-286L
Company
Zenith Data Systems
1000 Milwaukee Ave.
Glenview, I L 60025
(800) 8429000
Components
Processor: 80C286 CMOS 16-bit
processor running at 6 or 1 2 MHz,
keyboard-selectable, optional CMOS
80C287 math coprocessor
Memory: i megabyte of RAM standard,
expandable to 2 megabytes internally
Mass storage: One 1 44 megabyte 3Ya*
inch floppy disk drive; 20 or 40-megabyte
hard disk drive; optional 5 Vi-inch
external floppy disk drive
Display: Electroluminescent backlit
LCD with lOYz-inch diagonal screen
Keyboard: 84 full-size keys with 12
function keys, optional numeric keypad
I/O interfaces: One RS232C port with
DB-9 connector; Centronics parallel
printer port with DB-25 connector; RGB
color monitor port with DB-9 connector;
internal proprietary connectors for
expansion memory and modem; external
proprietary connectors for keypad and
floppy disk drive
Size
3 X 12Va X 1 2 'A inches (closed, 15Ys?
inches deep wilh battery pack)
DC power supply 6Y2 x 3 x 2 inches
IOY2 pounds; 1 4. V2 pounds with battery
AC power supply: 1 pound
Software
MS-DOS 3.21
Options
1200-bps internal modem: $299
2400-bps internal modem: $499
48-watt-hour battery pack: $289
26-watt-hour battery pack: $1 59
1 -megabyte expansion (EMS) RAM:
$1299
24 -key detachable keypad: $129
External 360K-by!e floppy disk drive:
$399
Three-slot external expansion chassis:
$499
80C287 coprocessor: $349
Technical -reference guide: $99
Documentation
120 page SupersPort 286 Portable
Owner's Manual; 540 page MS-DOS 3.21
User s Guide and User's Reference; 42-
page MS-DOS 3.21 Quick Reference
Guide
Price
Zenith SupersPort 286 with 20-
megabyte hard disk drive: $4999
Zenith SupersPort 286 with 40-
megabyte hard disk drive: $5599
Inquiry 859.
Company
Mitsubishi Electronics America, Inc.
991 Knox St,
Torrance, CA 90502
(213)515-3993
Components
Processor: 80286 16-bit processor
running at 8 or 1 2 MHz (one wail stale at
12 MHz, zero wait stales at 8 MHz);
80287 math coprocessor (optional)
Memory: 640K bytes of RAM standard,
expandable to 2 6 megabytes internally
Mass storage: One or two 1 44
megabyte 3 Y?- inch (loppy disk drives or a
20-megabyte hard disk drive
Display: Page-white Neutral Twisted
Nematic LCD with cold CRT backlighting;
1 1 -inch diagonal screen
Keyboard: 86 keys wilh 12 function
keys; optional separate 17-key numeric
keypad
I/O interfaces: Two RS-232C ports with
DB-9 connecters; Centronics-compatible
parallel printer port with DB-25
connector; CGA mcnilor port with DB-9
connector: internal proprietary
connectors for expansion memory and
modem; external proprietary
connectors lor keypad and floppy disk
drive
Size
3Ys x 12Y4 x 141/* inches, 16 pounds
Software
MS-DOS 3 3 and GWBASIC 3 20; user
diagnostics disk; Super PC-Kwik disk
cache
Options
2400 bps internal modem $499
2 -mega byte expansion RAM: $1530
1 7 key detachable keypad: $158
External 360K-byte floppy disk drive:
$525
80287 coprocessor (factory-installed):
$600
Microsoft OS/2: $325
Documentation
1 15-page MP-286L User s Guide;
295 page MS-DOS 3.3 User s Guide;
26- page MS-DOS Quick Relerence;
18-page MP-286L Quick Reference
Price
MP-286L-210 (dual 1 ,44 -mega byte
floppy disk drives): $3 1 95
MP-286L-220 (20-megabyte hard disk
drive): $3995
MP-286L-220VP (same as -220 but with
80287 coprocessor): $4595
MP-286L240E (40-megabyte hard disk
drive and EGA): $4795
MP-286L-240EVP (same as -240E but
with 80287 coprocessor): $5395
Inquiry 860,
to set the amount of time that the hard
disk drive continues to spin after the last
disk access. If the hard disk drive is not
spinning, it takes about 8 to 12 seconds
for the drive to respond to a request from
the operating system.
1 found that a fully charged battery
provides about 4 hours of continuous op¬
eration without using any of the conser¬
vation measures. The system begins to
beep pleadingly when the battery ts about
to die; you have 4 or 5 minutes to take
some action before low battery power fi¬
nal ly shuts down the system.
Three proprietary internal expansion
slots are provided in the SupersPort: one
for an internal modem, one for expan¬
sion RAM (l megabyte), and one for an
external expansion bus interface. This
interface is used to connect an optional
external three-slot expansion chassis to
the laptop; the expansion chassis can
hold three full-size, 8-bit, IBM PC
XT-compatible cards. The optional
80C287 math coprocessor's socket is ac¬
cessed by removing a neat trap door in
the bottom of the laptop.
The MP-286L's chassis features four
internal proprietary expansion buses.
You can use the buses to install up to 2
megabytes of expansion RAM, a 2400-
bit-per-second modem, or an additional
EGA or VGA display controller for use
with an external monitor. The space al¬
lotted for these slots and the MP-2S6L’s
built-in power supply and cooling fan
make its case almost as long as the
Supers Port's with its battery pack at¬
tached. The M P-286 L’s optional 80287
coprocessor must be installed by the
manufacturer; it is best to purchase the
machine with the chip installed if you re¬
quire one for your application.
Eyes and Hands
You constantly interface with two major
elements of a microcomputer: its display
and its keyboard. They are important in
determining how a computer feels and
how effectively you can interact with
whatever software you're using. These
two elements are also areas where laptop
computers have been consistently criti¬
cized for their shortcomings.
Liquid crystal displays have come a
long way since the first laptops and their
small, slow, and barely legible “ light
gray on dark gray" screens. Both the
MP-286L and the SupersPort 286 dis¬
plays have excellent contrast and are easy
to read under a variety of ambient light¬
ing conditions. The width-to- height ratio
of the screens is nearly identical to that
found on most CRTs: 1 to 1.3*
continued
190 BYTE - FEBRUARY 1989
Zenith SupersPort 286, Mitsubishi MP-286L
APPLICATION-LEVEL PERFORM ANCE
WORD PROCESSING ZS £06
Xy Write III +3.52 Med. /Large
Load {large} :17
Word couni :05/:35
Search/reptace :06/:34
E nd Of documeol : 03/: 20
Block move : 1 6/: 1 6
Spelling check : 15/ 1:47
Microsoft Word 4*0
Forward delete :42
Aldus PageMaker 1 .0a
Load document :21
Change/bold :41
Align right 31
Cut 10 pages :28
Piece graphic 06
Print to file 2:11
MP-2B6L
Med. /Large
: 14
:05/:36
:08/:33
:03/:21
:17/:17
: 16/1:54
:41
20
:4S
35
32
03
4 52
B Index;
SPREADSHEET
Lotus 1-2-3 2.01
Block copy
Recalc
Load Monte Carlo
Recalc Monte Carlo
Load rlarge3
Recalc rlarge3
Recaic Goal-seek
Microsoft Excel 2*0
Fill right
Undo fill
Recalc
Load rlarge3
Recalc rlarge3
1,59
1.45
2$ 206 MP-286L
05
02
24
11
08
02
07
08
30
03
40
02
;06
02
23
:V2
.08
02
:07
09
23
03
44
03
□ Index:
DATABASE
ZS 286
MP-286L
d BASE III + 1.1
Copy
1:05
1:42
index
21
:22
List
2:01
2:17
Append
2:10
3:04
Delete
03
:04
Pack
1:42
1:52
Count
18
:1 8
Sort
1:27
1.45
□ index:
1.28
1*05
SCIENTIFIC/ENGINEERING ZS 286
MP-286L
AutoCAD 2.52
Load SoftWest
3:36
4:13
Regen SoftWest
3:20
3:56
Load St Pauls
:5S
1:04
Regen StPauls
■53
:55
Hide/redraw
42:08
47:21
STATA 1 *5
Graphics
1:46
1:41
ANOVA
1:00
1 05
MathCAD 2,0
IFS 800 pts.
1:54
1:58
FFT/IFFT 1024 pts.
2:14
2:22
□ Index:
0.64
0.59
COMPILERS
ZS 286
MF-286L
Microsoft C 5*0
XLisp compile
7 09
8:45
Turbo Pascal 4.0
Pascal S compile
:08
:10
□ Index:
1.40
1.13
1.53
1*41
All times ace in minutes: seconds Indexes show relative performance, for all indexes, an 8-MH? IBM PC AT = t
LOW-LEVEL PERFORMANCE1
CPU
ZS 206 MP-2B6L
DISK I/O
ZS 286 MP-286L
VIDEO
ZS 286
MP-2BGL
Matrix
7 17
7.77
Hard Seek3
Text
String Move
Outer track
331
663
ModeO
10.05
9 56
Byte-wide
69.01
52/71
Inner track
333
4.98
Mode 1
10.03
9.59
Word -wide:
Half platter
9.94
21 64
Mode 2
8.29
10.38
Oda-bnd.
5232
52.69
Full platter
993
36.64
Mode 3
8.29
10.40
Even-bnd.
. 34.49
26.37
Average
6 63
17.47
Mode 7
N/A
N/A
Sieve
39 22
48.50
DOS Seek
Graphics
Sort
39 52
38,08
1 - sector
15.60
21 93
CGA:
32-sector
62.38
60 16
Mode 4
3.33
3.52
□ Index:
1,55 1 .62
FLOATING POINT
ZS 286 MP-206L
Math
Error5
N/A
N/A
Sine(x)
Error
N/A
N/A
e*
Error
N/A
N/A
□ fndex:
N/A
N/A
File I/O*
Seek
Read
Write
1 -megabyte
Write
Read
026
1 28
1 24
8.97
8.79
0 22
1.50
1.44
7.64
7.38
□ Index:
1.06 0.92
ModeS
Mode 6
EGA:
Mode 13
Mode 14
Mode 15
Mode 1 6
VGA:
Mode 18
Mode 19
Hercules
3.33
352
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
3,52
3.70
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
□ Index:
1,30
1,29
N/A=Not applicable
1 All times are m seconds. Figures were generated usrng the 8088/8086
versions (i.i) of Smail-C .
2 The errors for Floating Point indicate Ihe difference beiween expected and
actual values. correC1 10 10 digifs or rounded to 2 digits.
3 Times reported by the Hard Seek and DOS Seek are for multiple seek
operalions (number' of seeks performed currently $ei lo 100)
* Read and wnle times for Fife I/O are in seconds per 64 K bytes.
s For the Livermore Loops and Dtvysfone teste only, higher numbers mean
faster performance
CONVENTIONAL
BENCHMARKS
ZS 266 MP-286L
LINPACK 3800.84 4022.36
Livermore Loops6
(M FLO PS) 0.01 0.01
Dhrystone (MS C 5,0)
(Ohry/sec) 2890 2615
6.4
Zenith SupersPort
Mitsubishi MP-286L 5 . 6
Compaq 386/20 17.9
5.6
JBM PS/2 Model 50 Z
8.1
IBM PC AT
□
Word
Processing
□
Spreadsheet
n
Database
□
Scientific/
Engineering
□
Compilers
’Cumulative applicalions index. Graphs are
based Oh indexes ai >efl and show relative
performance
Zenith SupersPort
Mitsubishi MP-286L
Compaq 386/20
IBM PS/2 Model 50 Z
IBM PC AT
□
CPU
□
FPLI
□
Disk I/O
□
Video
For a full description of an me benchmarks, see introducing the New BVTE Bencnmarks, " June *900 8VTE
FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 191
REVIEW
A PAIR OF SOPHISTICATED LAPTOPS
At 9 by 6^ inches, the MP-286L/S
screen is slightly larger than the Super-
sPorfs, which is 8 by 6 inches. The Su¬
pers Port’s backlit screen has the familiar
blue characters on a silver-gray back¬
ground. The MP-286L features a very
light gray background (the company calls
it paper-white, but it’s not) with black
characters. A switch on the front of the
MP-286L’s screen changes the display
from regular to reverse- video mode-
white characters on a black background;
this mode is much harder on the eyes
when reading text, but it could be useful
for some applications (e.g., graphics
displays).
Both displays suffer from the common
problem of poor cursor legibility; it is
quite difficult to find the blinking under¬
line cursor’s location in a screen full of
text when editing with WordPerfect or
BRIEF, for example. You can improve
the cursor’s legibility by decreasing the
contrast, but this makes the background
appear dark and blotchy.
By the way, both computers have con¬
trols on the front of the displays to adjust
brightness and contrast, but the Super¬
sPort’ s sliding switches are easier to ad¬
just than the MP-286L’s buttons, which
must be twisted with a fingertip. The
range of adjustments on both machines is
broad enough to give good legibility
under all normal lighting conditions.
Although the MP-286L’s oversize
screen allows it to have characters larger
than those on other laptops, I did not like
the individual letters in its character set.
The bottom half of characters such as the
b and h and the top half of the p, gy and q
are shorter than the other lowercase let¬
ters. This unevenness gives the text a
choppy look and makes it hard to read.
Both computers can display colors as
shades of gray in a CGA text or graphics
mode. By judicious tweaking of the con¬
trast and brightness controls on the two
computers, I was able to display between
four and six different gray shades, corre¬
sponding to sixteen different colors on a
CGA monitor. When installing software
that has monochrome/color display op¬
tions, you are safer telling the program
that your display is monochrome. The
CGA option can too often result in an il¬
legible black-on-black or white- on -white
combination. Of course, if the software
lets you adjust the color palette, you
should be able to find a combination that
works well on either laptop.
Keyboards remain a troublesome area
for all laptop computers. Three signifi¬
cant problem areas are the location and
layout of the function keys and editing
keys and how the numeric keypad layout
is accommodated. The manufacturers
have resorted to a variety of techniques
in keyboard design to keep the size of
these computers down. Mitsubishi uses
the philosophy of fitting in more keys by
making many of the keys smaller. The
SupersPort’s keys are all full-size and
make use of an extra Fn key lhat acts like
a Control, Shift, or Alt key when used in
combination with other keys. In this
case, Zenith’s solution is better, and l
found its keyboard far easier to type on
and use effectively,
B oth
displays suffer from
the common problem of
poor cursor legibility.
For example, the SupersPort has only
four direction-type editing keys, located
in the lower right corner of the keyboard.
They are arranged in a familiar inverted
T pattern and work as the arrow' cursor
keys. When used in combination with the
Fn key, they become the Home, End,
PageUp, and PageDown keys. Mitsubi¬
shi's solution is to put eight separate,
half-size keys in the upper right corner of
the keyboard, where they are much hard¬
er to reach and use productively.
The SupersPort’s full-size function
keys (FI through F10) are laid out in a
row at the top of the keyboard; the FI l
and FI 2 keys’ functions are accessed by
using the Fn key in combination with the
FI and F2 keys. The MP-286L has its
half-size function keys arranged in two
rows at the top of the keyboard, with FI
to F8 in one row and F9 to FI 2 in the
other. This layout is difficult to learn and
makes you constantly hunt for the correct
function key— a situation that is tiresome
with a program like WordPerfect that
makes heavy use of the function keys.
Performance Edge
Although these two laptops have similar
hardware, the SupersPort 286 has a clear
edge when it comes to overall perfor¬
mance. Its advantage is due to two fac¬
tors: its 12-MHz 80C286 runs with zero
wait states when accessing RAM, and its
hard disk drive has an average access
time (measured with the Coretest pro¬
gram) of 27 milliseconds, versus 75 ms
for the MP-286L’s hard disk drive. Mit¬
subishi includes a disk-caching program
from Multisoft, Super PC-Kwik. which
compensates somewhat for its slow' hard
disk drive, These differences show up on
the BYTE benchmarks.
Both computers perform well com¬
pared to the better desktop 80286 com¬
puters; as the benchmark results show,
both laptops are fastenhan the IBM PS/2
Model 50, but they lag behind the new'er
PS/2 Model 50 Z. Neither machine was
equipped with a math coprocessor chip,
and this adversely affected the bench¬
mark results.
Words and Service
Both computers come with easy-to-read
setup and operating instructions. The
SupersPort 286 uses MS-DOS 3,21, and
the MP-286L uses MS-DOS 3.3 version
1.06. The MS-DOS manual for the Ze¬
nith laptop is larger and more complete
than the MP-286L's. The MP-286L
comes with GW BASIC but no BASIC
manual; Zenith does not include a
BASIC interpreter with the standard op¬
erating system for the SupersPort, Both
laptops can run the Microsoft OS/2 oper¬
ating system, which is offered as an op¬
tion by both manufacturers. However,
the maximum amount of RAM that the
laptops can accommodate (2 megabytes
for the SupersPort and 2.6 megabytes for
the MF-286L) may not be sufficient to
run future versions of OS/2.
Both Mitsubishi and Zenith offer a I-
year limited warranty on their laptops:
Mitsubishi guarantees a 7-day turn¬
around on the MP-286L. You are respon¬
sible for getting the damaged goods back
to either the manufacturer or one of its
authorized representatives. Zenith has
an excellent reputation for making qual¬
ity hardware, and its support policies are
also good. Mitsubishi is better known in
the U.S. for its well-made audio/visual
electronics equipment; if its computer
equipment is as good, then the MP-286L
should be trouble-free.
Last Keystrokes
The Zenith SupersPort 286 appears to be
at the top of the heap of battery-powered
80286 laptops in terms of performance
and battery life. Its 12-MHz zero- wait-
state processor and the fast hard disk
drive constitute a package challenged
only by the recently announced Compaq
SLT/286 and Toshiba T 1600.
Running the SupersPort 286 off a bat¬
tery pack has some limitations. I found
that the SupersPort’s 15 or 16 pounds of
computer, battery pack, and AC charger/
continued
192 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
AST Pre tn i um/3S5 C
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Times Have Changed.
REVIEW
A PAIR OF SOPHISTICATED LAPTOPS
power supply gets pretty heavy if you
have to lug it more than a few hundred
feet. Even though I carried the laptop in
the convenient and well-made padded
nylon case that Zenith sells as an option,
itTs definitely a chore. In my experience,
10 or li pounds is a more reasonable
upper limit to comfortably tote around an
airport for extended periods of time.
A more serious shortcoming of the Su-
persPort 286 arose when I tried to use it
during a business flight. This computer
is simply too long to fit comfortably on a
tray table in the coach section of a DC-
10, With the computer resting on the
tray, I could not open the screen to a
comfortable viewing angle because it hit
the back of the seat in front of me. If I slid
it toward me to alleviate that problem,
then the keyboard was jammed too dose
to my body, and typing was extremely
awkward. The 3 inches that the battery
pack adds to the overall length of the
computer just makes it too long in this
XTSH Super AT'S. Tower 366
Wo rJuitj lions . . CALL
tiatton wttie orr-s/lte-swvfloi* n YfltlftQtot
AST
Premupu.-Jdli - Mattel 66
PftftilLnHi'305 - MwM 3D0..
CALL
CALL
MONITORS & TERMINALS
PRINTERS, PLOTTERS & FAX
brother Dot matrix, cfolsY wheal,
rajer printers, tax moth hot CALL
p®%ason*c 1592 132 Col. 19QCPS . ... .^S4£9
10601 . . . 5 169 1 Ml Modal 2 S 199
. . . 5319 1524 . $579
KXDGDSeilG) PLOTTERS
instrument digitizers
Surrmajtwhiat
SUMMA SKETCH 12X12 . ... , . tffil
PR0I2XTG. . . 5939 MAC-13 X 12. ..530?
FAX
Kero* 7W7 9BQ0 BPS. 1& second t page, + fteijna
with 99 number BUI© did. 10 po IewJ, up tp 7 rtay
cfflltrydrifiwnd’, 200*400 rNotellon . 51,295
T01 , 701 9, 7020. 7021 , F Dimpil irvPC . . CALI
NETWORKING
VA# i^Urt m cwrO^ifH a [dug N Pkfyty*[ijm
JPW RAM, ?j MS fcjw n Tppi li Dm. a.1
Pp«K tcjnvuniui, SKW URS
-Mo-rtl Eli MaW*.. Jvn «
Suppnnatt ■ dkS ts ok upv. ojisk. oocaa-B mh*
CPU ■ dolncji. bolter* poll, teiChlll $uptn1*fa| -tfiftpft
&4fli200r RGB cotorcorinttelo# lor truL ir anflnr due*,
SW^flr. puna, 01 1 bus artjf 9.7 tea.. . 5 1.689
Wllh 20Mb IieifiI ririwjh 720K floppy $2,39$
SttpersPott IBS - 1.4 4Mb Happy. 20Mb hwd Or,
HqEzBG-iZMHz. 1Mb. 64CMO& B diode* of mw
C.S.P. RGB ports, 14 tea. witll boltery pak $3,598
♦ MITSUBISHI
XT m, ELECTRONICS
MP388L l2ffllllJ0™il1«OM,]l'wtl‘L65D«j«1,OeA,
HOC Exl Vkto-o rtrtptr. 1.44Mb Happy. 20Mh note
drlye. ZSOT'TPH. cucal. Prl Iteppjr pals. .1 propfWIary
Hate, DOS 3.3, GW Basic . .. . ^ JjW
MP2fiSLwHh4uMb Drive . «>(8S
* Wjwc
-4 ArtNRi r+j;l*. cibln, i (■«,« i*.
KTPON l^TH-SKHvHW
EGA INI ‘rf swivel. M'rncn 5059
cSfi Samsung1*1' m 'n' »i<* hires . $209
" 1211 TTL irti'iWryxH amljap I 73
O TATUNG
CM' U95 OmniSeon 1 A ' Mute- Mtd . BCHMOO.
VGA.EGA CGA, TWS, WO A card . HH .. .$729
CM- I JP6 VGA 1 JVYGA cad 34P9
"The Genius" FI/ll page
■or PCflTOWT . .call
MQNHEftM l r A 24*.. . . . . . CALL
NEC MUIIISyiTC II [liWt $599
WVSf WY-50 green or omi>er.,.$J89
■ ■ ■ • WV-60w/bvboord . $425
XTRON
XTRON'Fuluriilic; fflol, & nwvgloro w/efuol
ffidno, EGA, VGA & Multisync moddsCAU.
FTM-14B0 VGA iial screen $59$
PC SOFTWARE- 5 MICE
Oalu Base Mo-nnq pmoril
AthlcuvTtlte dBase 111 Hu* .
PFS: Piotowtenai Fite .
*T«B
WaidToch OBXt. rdBASf 31 'OiitmolicT . .
■ ■ ST IS
CammumeiiiBrpB
Cartoon C-pptf Plus I'Meridvinl .
Crosstalk XVI [MicrasMI .
...... J 90
f 9®
$220
Wold P rocosiQ rs
RriiwWof el rWoJdSraf 4 6 eJgein] .
WofflSlJW 4.0 . .
Mteroaon Word .
MulkMate Advariliioo II .
PFB ProliSildrifll Write .
K3S
.$260
• • $IIH
Word Parted .
523$
intoaraiwt^ SprcnctariorHi
BrmWii £.6 (SOltwarB ornitf) . $969
Friim&work N lAfnEort-Tate) ..$375
Franwwofklll . . .
Lalus 1-2-3 . _ 129S
Muiiipten3.G.. ..
■ .1115
PFS- F tetf Click* .
PFS- Pra1n«lo*ifll Plan .
Syjnpiwy iLoiuaj .
• . 5 SB
DesMop PumlaJilnn
PFS' Pint PuMishar . . . .
PFS: ArtGmiflfY . . . . . . .
^5 09
.$ 09
. . $409
Xilrox Venter* 4,0 . . . . . . . .
AklLtt PajflMfikur/PC 3.6 .
Graphics 5 Mlc d
HfitvmcI GrBftelCa (lorLnlus t-2-3)
IMS! OpUMouw Serial . . .
. $240
. .5 88
IMS! Gehlua Mouse Sflrlol .
. J 59
Mlcr-OSalt Mouse.. . . . . ,.
SutnnaSkelch i8nl2 . . . . „„Z
. 1265
PrOlBCl MimjiDiMnervt
Hfluvard Tolal Proisci: Manaeior .
. trun
■ ^llk P&JTTteT C4™, rwH guMntihifeJ
POWER ACCESSORIES
310*T ... . $295
450 AT.. - __Jfl25
520 E5 . . . . . $495
' ABORT w/UPSlT . 5795
IIOOVX WUPS NF ,..,5925
ini* rfac» Cable . S 25
Now!! U P S- Monitor Boorit ComtmlihM
*Z20 Vntr Mulcts AutikWe *
flrainprhL-8 >ip tenia rrr.T - ,
6PPM2rKlQwi.QjimnFnglnol : I — Pf^L <onl
Enurfhh'u Epaork IBM. D*ibto \ ^ f!. canrWQb
1 Mb RAM- M gtoplites ; = AJ oT your
HP LosorJlM Plua oompdlUiln .
.u.r
AST TuTboLOBCriPS pafllscripl, rinah.
3 Mb. 3S lanlg. Opjiin. ApplrjMao'PC . CALI
n.P.LnnifrJol Sflrlos 11 . . . CALL
Pane mole 44 50 Lngdi duoi Iray, 1 1 PPM . S 1.SH5
HP Scoi%fc| Scanner win Slnricr KH 51,675
MPi'BroihprFftlltCnrtrldrjiia . FROM . $1(5
DRIVES - HARD, FLOPPY S, TAPE
^SEVERE*-
Ev ere *001 OOMh loiwnrhopo wiib Boiiwnto lasts
Eye rex 1 25Mb »ntem,H Tnpo _ _ _ $?,ns
CDC 5C.30OM6 SCSI,.. . . . . CALL
M^p Cj Or 9 T* 1 146 1 40Mb . SI ,69$
MICRCmUSaSMb ZSmSEC S 599
-o MimSc T&w 3053 1 II I 22at5tsc -u Mu . % 449
BcrifacCarp 30Mb DHyo-an n-
curd 40vnGEC . . . y 355
MHSbbN1iU4«fiMblRLLj ZBmSE-C . S469
SaagatB
Seagate PC 2D Mh with WD Clrl 5 269
SROQftlfl Pfr XT 3DMb 37^230. clr|. cat*- , 5 209
Floppy Drives
Fu|ll5H 38[1K J751 1 2 Mb $95,72tlK 5 9B.'I 44.$l09
Mllflubteftl 3<iOK SWI £ 51 25.720KS95 1 1 M 5 lig
jMcasOKCi ALL / 1 .25 99 720* $$8 /1 .44 $ 99
MODEMS & BOARDS
ANCHOR
1200 External . $38 M7ffi>1nlfrn*L5 63
2400 External . .5135 ) 2400 Inlcrnpl Si 15
i"=iEEVEREJfr
EvcrCom 2-lao ira . S 1 39 / 240QE (MNP). 5 1 69
Multi Jech'^| Mujt^^odsrps,. . . CALL
i: Hotiutics
U$ PobDLICB Coulter HST up lev 19 200 bps... $5?9
3^00 EXI . 5168 l 24M PC $148
IHfflfi . 5 M M 200 PC . S 68
/1H f Atly&nlngo Prom 51 2K. 3. P $ 306
AdyCTHoQcPS^-5t2K2Mb.. 5365
MHMMHNC. ”or Shol 206-1 OKTAcCbJ. Bd . S366
liOMlHlIPKTor AT . . . . 5 75
RAMPAGE 306 ■ 512K . -.,.-.5395
RAMPAGES torXT256K - I^Odel 30 S?g
n AMP AGE Plus 266^5 1 2K mlcnrchannftl .. . $ 509
SIX PAK PIUS 64K . . . . . . . SUB
VGA PLUS 25GK 10bi|.$36g <VGA . . (259
XFGRMER - AT raptocomonl, lar XT'* 6 H&l MB, 10
MH2 *0\ 5I2K, S.P.C. Happy and rurd drive
CbnlrmlBr. EGA, CGA. HQC...h,„ . J6J9
5251 HI Plua AS t Gufiranfsas . . . $590
_ , MuqIC I/O ATI .3 S.P.G 1 1 TUB) . $ 59
t Llllf Bgiroph IC6 1 1 9‘ Monitor CALL
Floppy 1,'QS.P. G.G _ $ A9
Deluxe EGA B70x6CKj4. prt. .51 69
VGA . . . $249
Abbv 0 Board '206 -PCM&402O 51 3K., . $ 379
M2AT.J1: . 5 J092H.7. m . $ 399
MeUi Cdprccessor . $87S
intgl
800-528-3138 Orders Only 602-M1-7870 Customer Service
S-tOO DIvJGdS Corp. ♦ 14151 H, 76th St. ♦ Scoitsdate, A2 05260
♦ TELEX 9 1 03606775 SWSCORP ♦ FAX 602-483-0920
hSMti Maui* *U'«i virr pi
situation. Maybe it's a machine designed
for the First Class section. Despite these
inconveniences, however, it was a plea¬
sure to have such a powerful computer
literally at my fingertips while traveling,
and this made the problems I experb
enced seem minor.
The MP-286L/S performance would
be significantly enhanced if a hard disk
drive with a faster average access time
were used: the sluggish drive currently
installed in the machine is not in keeping
with the rest of the system's performance
potential. Unless its street price is signif¬
icantly less than its list price, the Mitsu¬
bishi does not represent a particularly
good value. [Editor's note: After this re¬
view was written, Mitsubishi announced
the MP-2S6L-240E , featuring a 40-
megabyte hard disk drive with better than
30-ms access time and an EGA display. ]
Zenith and Mitsubishi both face seri¬
ous competition in the arena of AC and
battery-powered laptops. There are
many contenders in this category, and
some have features superior to those of
the SupersPort and MP-286L, For exam¬
ple, the Toshiba T3200 has an excellent
EGA-compatibie plasma display and two
standard IBM expansion slots. NEC has
recently announced its ProSpeed series
of laptops, which also offer an EGA-
compatible LCD screen.
The SupersPort and the MP-286L are
a far cry from their 8088 and 8086 prede¬
cessors, Their displays are clear and
bright with superior contrast; they use
fast 80286 CPUs and provide internal ex¬
pandability for at least 2 megabytes of
RAM; and they accommodate 40-mega¬
byte hard disk drives. All this has been
accomplished without increasing their
size or weight significantly.
The SupersPort 2 86' s user interface—
the display and keyboard— are better
than the MP-2S6LX and with its battery
pack the SupersPort 286 is a more versa¬
tile package. On the other hand, both the
SupersPort and the MP-286L suffer
from what have become chronic laptop
problems: text cursors that are difficult
to find and cramped keyboards— com¬
promises that seem unavoidable with this
genre of computer. You will have to de¬
cide if higher performance, battery
power, and a full megabyte of RAM are
worth the S1000 difference in list price
between comparably equipped Zenith
and Mitsubishi computers. ■
John Unger is a geophysicist for the U. S.
government and lives in Hamilton, Vir¬
ginia. He writes graphics software and
uses computers to study the earth 's crust.
You can reach him on BIX as ftmger. t#
m BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 260 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS: 261)
Everex
Step 286 12 & 16 MHz & 20 MHz
1 Meg RAM
Set up utility in ROM
S/P, C/C
Enhanced keyboard
1,2 MB floppy
DOS/BASIC
Cali! for
your
configuration
Everex
LAP-TOP
Compaq SLT 266-20 . Call
SLT 286-40 . Call
Toshiba T1000 . 769
T1200F . .1395
T12QQHB . 2395
T3200-40 Meg . 3495
T5100 . 4595
Zenith Supersport
286-20 Meg . . 3195
286-40 Meg 3695
8086-20 Meg . Call
Epson LT . . Call
NEC EL w/case . 1295
Mitsubishi 286-20 . 2595
Step 386-20 MHz & 16 MHz & 25 MHz
256 K cache of very high speed RAM
2 Meg RAM, expandable to 16 Meg
S/P, C/C
Enhanced keyboard
1.2 MB floppy
DQ5/BAS1C
Everex 1800 Available
Call!
AST
AST 386 40 Meg .
3495
AST 286 model 80 .
1595
AST 286 model 120 .
. Call
AST 286 model 140 . .
.2595
CARD & MONITOR EXTRA
WE STOCK
CITIZEN
OKI DATA
EVEREX
GOLD STAR
TOSHIBA
NEC
WYSE
HITACHI
PRINCETON GRAPHICS
SONY
ACER
HOUSTON INSTRUMENTS
AMDEK
HAYES
SAMSUNG
CALCOMP
DC MOUSE
MICROSOFT MICE
LOGITECH
MITSUBISHI
IRWIN & ARCHIVE
TAPE BACK
TAXAN
MAGNOVOX
BOARDS
Paradise VGA+ . 285
Vega VGA . 279
Everex EVGA 265
Everex EGA . 159
Tatung 16 bit 275
SOFTWARE SPECIALS
dBase IV . 455
WordPerfect . 239
Aldus Pagemaker . 450
Ventura Publisher , 475
Clipper . 415
Quatro . ,145
MONITORS
Nec Multisync II 575
Nec Multisync Plus 875
Nec Multisync XL-19"2095
Samsung EGA . 335
Goldstar VGA . ... 375
FAX MACHINES
Sharp FO 220 950
Sharp FO 420 1195
Canon Call
Minolta . Call
Brother Call
Richo . Call
NOVELL
Authorized
Dealer
Intel
Coprocessors
8087-3 105
8087-2 . 145
80287-6 . 175
80287-10 285
80387-16 . 485
80387-20 . 549
80387-25 695
PRINTERS
EPSON
LX-B00/LQ-500 . 195/315
LQ-850/1050 535/735
OKI DATA
320/321 335/460
390/391 460/635
TOSHIBA
321-SL/341-SL 485/595
351-SX 350 CPS 945
BROTHER
1709-9 PIN . 425
1724-24 PIN 595
LASER PRINTERS
HP Laser II . 1695
HP Desk Jet . 675
Panasonic 4450 1549
Brother HL-8 . 1B95
Nec LC 890 . 3295
PageLaser 12 . $$$$$
MODEMS
Everex 1200 Int . 89
Everex 2400 Int 149
Hayes 1200 B . 275
More in Stock . Call
EXPORTS
Available
WE ACCEPT LC, CASHIER CHECKS, MONEY ORDERS, VISA, MC, AmEx
3% charge on VISA, MC & 5% on American Express
COMPUTERLANE
HOURS:
M-S 9-6
CORPORATE ACCOUNTS WELCOME
CALL FOR VOLUME DISCOUNTS
CONSULTANTS CALL FOR PRICING
1-800-5264482 (Outside CA)
(818) 884*8644 (In CA)
(818) 8848253 (FAX)
Prices subject to change without notice
22107 ROSCOE BLVD.
CANOGA PARK
W BLOCK W. OF TOPANGA
CA 91304
Compaq is a Registered Trademark of Compaq
IBM is a Registered Trademark of International Business Machines
Circle 64 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 ‘BYTE 195
‘‘The Dataworld 2B6 [1 2 MHz] AT compatible., .(is) ...
th.6 fastest machine ot the nine tested in that review
(July 1988)." (September 27. 1 9S&T
and
. . . speed and excellent compatibility . tiu ndreds of
dollars less expensive than other AT compatible.
EDITOR’S
CHOICE
NOW!
20MHz 286
SI = 22.5
“Marvelously cheap, powerful
alternative ... outperformed the
other 286* s ...”
(October 11, 1988)
1
W 1
DATA-286 12MHz
8Q2S6 running at 8/I2Mhz, 0/1 wail state
Phoenix BIOS std, (Award BIOS opt.)
5I2KB of RAM! expandable tod MB on board
Socket for 80287-8. -10
200 W power supply
Real-time dock with battery backup
1, 2MB floppy disk drive
Happy/hard disk controller
(1:1 interleave controllers available)
101-key keyboard with "dick*
Mono card w/paralld port (720x348)
TTL monitor with tilt/swivel base
$1195
Portacomp II
80285 running at B/l2Mhz* 0/1 wait state
Phoenix BIOS std. (Award BIOS opl.)
512KB of RAM. expandable to 1MB on board
Socket for 80287-8, -10
Real-time clock with battery backup
1 .44M B 3,5" floppy disk drive
20MB, 39ms* self-parking hard drive
102-kcy keyboard with "click"
Superiwist backlit LCD, 640x400 res.
RGB/monochrome output port
Weighs under 20 Lbs,
1 ,2MB external floppy drive opt.
Carrying case available
$1975
DATA-286 20MHz
80286 running at 10/2QMhz
AWARD BIOS std.
1MB of RAM, exp, to 2M B on board
EMS 4.0 support for memory over 1MB
Socket for 80287
200 W power supply
Real-time dock with battery backup
1.2MB floppy disk drive
1:1 interleave floppy/hard disk controller
101 -key keyboard with "click"
Mono card w/parallcl port (720x348)
TTL monitor with ii It/swivel base
$1555
COMPLETE 10MHz DESKTOP SYSTEMS FROM $945.00
Dataworld Keyboard
101-key enhanced layout
L -shaped large return key
Integrated dust cover (paper rest)
— $89
Portacomp l
80286 8/12MHZ, 0/1 wait
Phoenix BIOS std. (Award opt.)
51 2K RAM (exp, to 1MB)
2D0W power supply
1.2MB 5,25" floppy drive
20MB hard disk drive
Superiwist backlit LCD
RGB output port
5 expansion slots
1 parallel* 2 serial ports $1875
DATA-386
4.77/6/8/ 16M Hz (20MHz opt.)
I MB of RAM, exp. to 10MB
Phoenix BIOS std. (Award opt,)
220 W power supply
L2MB floppy disk drive
Floppy/hard disk controller
101-key keyboard with "click"
Five 16 and two 8-hit slots
Mono card and monitor $1 995
Vertical Case
Front panel on/off switch
22QW power supply
6 half-height drive bays
Dimensions: 16 3/4ri(D) x
7 3/8"(W)x25 5/8"(H)
Available for 286-/386- models
Color-coded Ney set for
WordPerfect available
Prices subject to change. No charge tor credit card, check, C.O.D, 30 day morteyback guarantee (Shipping charges non- refundable).
Dealer/ overseas inquiries welcome
In-Calif. 1-800-722-7734 INFO: (213) 695-3777
Out-Calif. 1-800-722-7702 TECH: (213) 699-8250
Monday through Friday, 7 A.M, to 6 P.M, Saturday 9 A M. to 3 P,M. PST, 3733 San Gabriel River Parkway, Pico Rivera, CA 90660-1495
System Review
APS/2
in Channel Only
The Tandy 5000 MC
has a hybrid design,
offering PS/2
compatibility combined
with traditional
PC features
Mark L. Van Name
With its delivery of the Tandy
5000 MC, Tandy has be¬
come the first vendor to
ship a Micro Channel-com¬
patible PC. While such PCs arc often re¬
ferred to as “PS/2 clones," the 5000 MC
differs in many ways from IBM's PS/2s.
A Micro Channel Clone
The 5000 MC has an IBM Micro Chan¬
nel-compatible bus. BYTE supplied me
with an MS-DOS-compatible Micro
Channel add-on card, an IBM 4-mega¬
byte memory-expansion option— that one
worked like a champ. The 5000 MC
noted the extra board when it booted and
told me to reconfigure the system. I in¬
serted Tandy’s reference disk, which
contains PS/2 -style configuration soft¬
ware from Phoenix Technologies, and
rebooted the system. That software also
told me of the setup error and asked if I
wanted it to handle the situation for me. I
said yes, a few screens went by, and the
new board was up and running.
It really was simpler than messing
with DIP switches and the usual IBM PC
AT setup programs. This experience
clearly illustrated some of the nicer
points of the autoconfiguring nature of
Micro Channel expansion cards.
I also tried an Arnet eight-serial-port
card. The 5000 MC noticed the card and
asked me to add its drivers to the refer¬
ence disk. It knew the right names for the
drivers, so it was able to read the board’s
Micro Channel ID. I was unable to test it
further, however, because the board did
not come with an MS-DOS driver.
Although this testing was admittedly
very limited, the 5000 MC appears to
work with Micro Channel-compatible
cards. Further testing might turn up a
few incompatibilities, but Tandy has def¬
initely taken a strong first step into the
world of PS/2 compatibility.
The Complete Package
The rest of the 5000 MC is a very reason¬
able system, with a 20-MHz 80386 at its
heart. The 80386 gets help from an Intel
82385 cache controller and a 32K-byte
cache of 35-nanosecond static RAM
(SRAM). This cache system lets it work
with the 5000 MC’s 2 megabytes of 100-
ns dynamic RAM (DRAM) without wait
states over 90 percent of the time.
The basic 5000 MC also includes a
socket for a 20-MHz Intel 80387 math
coprocessor and a 1.44-megabyte V/i-
inch floppy disk drive, much like a PS/2
system. It follows the basic PS/2 design
further by including circuitry on the
motherboard that supports a DB-9 serial
port, a DB-25 parallel port, a 6-pin DIN
keyboard connector, a 6-pin DIN mouse
connector, a DB-15 analog monitor con¬
nector that provides VGA compatibility,
and a controller that supports two daisy-
chained floppy disk drives.
All these connectors except for the
continued
Circle 71 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS: 72)
FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 197
REVIEW
A PS/2 IN CHANNEL ONLY
Tandy 5000 MC
Company
Tandy Corp
1800 One Tandy Center
Fort Worth, IX 76102
(817) 390-3700
Components
Processor: 20 MHz32-bil 80386:
socket for 20- MHz 80387 math
coprocessor
Memory: 2 megabytes of 32-bit 100-ns
DRAM; 32K bytes of 35-ns SRAM cache;
128K bytes Of BIOS ROM
Mass storage: One 1 44 megabyte Sc¬
inch floppy disk drive: 80 megabyte hard
disk drive
Display; Tandy VGM 300 VGA-
compatibJe analog monitor
Keyboard: 101 keys in IBM Enhanced
layout
I/O interfaces: R3-232C serial port with
DB 9 connector: DB 25 parallel port;
analog monitor port with DB 1 5 con
neclor; 6- pin DIN keyboard connector;
6 -pin DIN mouse connector; proprietary
32 bit expansion slot for removable CPU
board; two proprietary 32 bit expansion
slots for memory-expansion adapters;
two 3 2- bit and three 16 bit Micro
Cha n n el - com pati ble s I ots
Size
17 x 15V2 x 6 % inches; 26V? pounds
Software
Tandy reference disk with configuration
utilities, disk utilities, feature control, and
POST error handler
Options
Memory-expansion adapter with OK
RAM $100
1 ’megabyte memory kit: $649
80387 maih coprocessor $1095
ST-506 MFM hard disk drive conlroller-
MC: $380
ESDI controller MC $430
SCSI host adapter $500
40 megabyie hard disk drive $1299
80-megabyte hard disk drive: $2299
VGM -300 VGA monitor: $629
VGM -200 VGA monilor: $500
VGM 100 monochrome monitor: $200
MS-DOS 3 30 (includes GWBASIC
3 30) $120
1 .2 -megabyte 5 ’A -inch floppy disk drive
kit: $300
3 60 K byte 5 Winch floppy disk drive
kit. $200
Documentation
Tandy 5000 MC Installation and
Operation Manual; RGB Analog Monitor
VGM 200/300 Owner's Manual
Price
Basic system: $4999
System as reviewed $7748
Inquiry 858.
floppy disk drive controller are accessi¬
ble from the back of the system unit. One
particularly nice touch is that each of
these connectors is labeled in raised let¬
ters on the case.
Because all this support circuitry is
part of the motherboard, the 5000 MC is
also able to offer five Micro Channel-
compatible expansion slots in a system
with a footprint smaller than an AT Y
This basic 5000 MC package runs
$4999. Of course, to use it you need a
monitor and an operating system, and
you almost certainly will want a hard
disk drive. Tandy offers two packaged
versions with a 40- megabyte or 80-mega-
byte hard disk drive for $6499 or $6999,
respectively. However, neither of these
packages includes a monitor or an oper¬
ating system.
My evaluation system was the 80-
megabyte hard disk drive package, with
Tandy’s top-of-the-line, VGA-compat¬
ible analog monitor and MS-DOS 3.30
added. Total price: $7748.
For comparison, the closest true PS/2
is probably the IBM Model 70-12 L That
system’s basic configuration differs
from the 5000 MC in three major ways; It
has no cache system, its disk drive is big¬
ger (120 megabytes), and it has only
three open Micro Channel slots. The
basic Model 70-121 runs $7995 , or about
$1000 more than the 5000 MC. So, if
you want the Micro Channel bus, the
5000 MC dearly offers a price incentive.
In the world of conventional AT- com¬
patible PCs, probably the closest compa¬
rable system is Compaq's new 386/20E,
Like the PS/2s, the Compaq has many of
its basic features built into the mother¬
board. Its standard memory is only l
megabyte, it contains four AT- compat¬
ible slots, and its floppy disk drive is a
5 'A -inch unit, but otherwise it and the
5000 MC offer the same basic features.
The 40-megabyte hard disk drive version
of the Compaq 3B6/20E lists for $6599,
or just $100 more than the 40-megabytc
5000 MC package— but you still have to
buy another megabyte of memory from
Compaq to make the two systems compa¬
rable, Thai makes the 5000 MC a reason¬
ably priced alternative to traditional AT-
compatible systems as well, although
there are certainly many 20-MHz sys¬
tems out there that are cheaper than
either Tandy ’s or Compaq’s.
Performance?
As you can tell from the accompanying
performance chart, the 5000 MC’s per¬
formance, like its price, falls somewhere
in the middle of the pack of the 20-MHz
80386-based systems. I compared its
BYTE benchmark results closely with
those of two other systems: the Compaq
386/20 and the IBM PS/2 Model 80-1 1 1 .
Basically, the 5000 MC loses to the
Compaq, with an overall application in¬
dex that is 20 percent slower, but it beats
the Model 80’s overall application index
by about 8 percent.
The 5000 MC actually beats out the
386/20 by a hair on the CPU tests, but it
loses all the other tests. Its biggest losses
are in the video and disk tests. Its 1 1 per¬
cent slower video performance is not sur¬
prising, since Compaq’s VGA system is
one of the industry's fastest. The 5000
MC’s large (44 percent slower) loss on
the disk tests is probably due to its ST-
506-compatible disk; the Compaq unit
contained a faster, enhanced-small-de-
v ice- interface (ESDI) controller.
The 5000 MC's only significant loss
to the IBM Model 80-111 also came on
the disk tests. Again, it was competing
with a faster ESDI drive, so that loss is
not surprising.
These differences should decrease
when Tandy ships its ESDI controller for
the 5000 MC. While Tandy currently
lists that controller among the system’s
options, a Tandy spokesperson said that
the controller was not yet available when
Tandy sent the review system to BYTE.
Compatibility?
The evaluation unit may have lost the
disk race, but it came through like a
champ on software compatibility. It ran
every program I threw at it, including
Borland's Quattro 1.0, Reflex 1.14,
SideKick Plus t.0, SuperKey L16A,
Turbo Basic 1.1, Turbo C 1.0, and
Turbo Pascal 4.0; Digitalk’s Small-
talk/V 1.2; Kermit 2.30; a copy-pro¬
tected Lotus 1-2-3 version 2.01; Micro¬
Pro’s WordStar 3.3 and 4.0; Microsoft’s
PC Paintbrush 2.0, Windows/386 ver¬
sion 2.03, and Word 4.0; the Norton
Utilities 3.00: Quarterdeck’s DESQview
2.0, with the Quarterdeck Expanded
Memory Manager 386 version 1.10; and
Symantec’s Q&A 1. 1 ,
Tandy is not yet shipping a version of
OS/2 that will work with the 5000 MC’s
Micro Channel-compatible bus. Tandy
offers Microsoft OS/2 1.00 for many of
its other PCs, however, and a Tandy
spokesperson said that Tandy would soon
be including support for the 5000 MC.
Going Inside
Opening the unit is fairly easy; You just
remove three Phillips screws on the
back, pull the sides of the cover a bit
apart, and push the cover forward. Still,
continued
198 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Tandy 5000 MC
APPLICATION-LEVEL PERFORMANCE
WORD PROCESSING
DATABASE
Xy Write lfl+ 3.52
Medium/Large
dBASE 111+ 1.1
Load (large)
: 15
Copy
1:01
Word count
102/16
Index
:22
Search/replace
04/20
List
1:27
End of document
:Q1/:14
Append
1:37
Block move
;09/:09
Delete
:02
Spelling check
06/49
Pack
1:23
Microsoft Word 4.0
Count
19
Forward delete
:12
Son
1:19
Aldus PageMaker i .0a
Load document
Change/bold
Align right
Cut 10 pages
Place graphic
Print to file
:15
:24
i18
17
:04
1:36
□ Index:
SPREADSHEET
Lotus 1-2-3 2.01
Block copy
Recalc
Load Monte Carlo
Recalc Monte Carlo
Load rlarge3
Recalc Harge3
Recalc Goal-seek
Microsoft Excel 2M
Fill right
Undo tilt
Recalc
Load rlarge3
Recalc rlarge3
2.97
02
01
17
04
04
01
02
04
30
02
22
01
□ Index:
t.so
SCIENTIFIC/ENGINEERING
AutoCAD 2.52
Load SoltWest
42
Regen SoflWest
29
Load St Pauls
10
Regan Si Pauls
:05
Hide/redraw
9:05
STATA1.5
Graphics
19
ANOVA
12
MathCAD 2.0
IPS 600 pts
12
FFT/IFFT 1024 pts
12
□ Index:
4.35
COMPILERS
Microsoft C 5.0
XLisp compile
4 14
Turbo Pascal 4.0
Pascal S compile
05
□ Index:
□ Index:
2.23
3.23
AH limes are in mi nuies. seconds indexes snow relative performance. for all indexes, an B-MHz IBM PC AT* t
LOW-LEVEL PERFORMANCE1
CPU
DISKI/O
VIDEO
Matrix
3.39
Hard Seek*
Text
String Move
Outer track
333
Mode 0
4 06
Byte-wide
24.27
Inner Irack
3 29
Mode 1
4 08
Word -wide
Half platter
6.68
Mode 2
4.39
Odd-bnd
30 36
Full platter
1000
Mode 3
4.37
Evervbnd
12.18
Average
583
Mode 7
N/A
Doubleword wide:
DOS Seek
Graphics
Odd-bnd.
21.03
1 -sector
11,22
CGA
Even- bn d.
6.09
32-sector
55.18
Mode 4
1 48
Sieve
17.85
File I/O*
ModeS
1.49
Sort
13.46
Seek
0 16
Mode 6
1.65
Read
1 25
EGA:
□ Index:
3,71
Write
1.05
Mode 1 3
3,50
1 -megabyte
Mode 1 4
4,01
FLOATING POINT
Write
7 74
Mode 15
N/A
Math
6.60
Read
9.23
Mode 1 6
395
Error2
VGA:
Sine(x)
2.09
□ Index:
1*25
Models
4.14
Error
Mode 19
1.57
e*
2.35
Hercules
N/A
Error
□ Index:
2*26
□ Index:
7+9l
N/A- Not supported by graphics adapter
1 AH times are in seconds. Figures were generated usxig the 8GBSreoe6
and 80306 versions (1 1 Jot Small -C.
2 Tne errors for Floating Point ind-cale the difference between expected and
acluai values, correct to 10 digits or rounded to 2 diguls
a Times reported by the Hard See* and DOS Seek are for multiple seek
operations {number of seeks performed currently sat to 100)
* Read and write limes for File I/O are in seconds per 64 K bytes
a For the Livermore Loops and Dhrystone tests only, higher numbers mean
taster performance
Tandy 5000 MC
Compaq 386/20 17.9
14.3
IBM PS/2 Model 00-1 11 13,2
IBM PC AT 5
Word r—,
Processing I _ I
Spreadsheet D
Database □
Scientific/ i — i
Engineering 1 _ 1
Compilers □
'Cumulative applications index. Graphs are
based on indexes at left and show relative
performance
Tandy 5000 MC
Compaq 386/20
CONVENTIONAL
BENCHMARKS
UNPACK 177 74
Livermore Loops5
(M FLOPS) 0 21
Dhrystone (MS C 5.0)
(Dhry/sec) 6201
IBM PS/2 Model 80-1 11
IBM PC AT
CPU □
FPU D
Disk I/O Q
Video □
Fa a lull descr.cl.on ol all the berchmaiks. see ''Introducing the New BYTE Benchmarks. ' June 1988 BYTE
FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 199
REVIEW
A PS/2 IN CHANNEL ONLY
Photo 1 : The CPU card is visible in the upper left corner. The card contains the
80386 , a socket for an 80387 coprocessor, the 82385, and the SRAM cache chips ,
that's more work than it takes to open a
PS/2, which is your first hint of just how
different the two systems are.
You get the real message when the
cover's off. This is not a PS/2 on the
inside.
First, forget the PS/2's single mother¬
board, its slidc-on disk connectors, and
the nylon snap fasteners that make the
IBM machines easy to take apart and re¬
assemble. The 5000 MC h built with tra¬
ditional PC engineering, with cables
snaking everywhere and lots of small
screws holding the whole thing together.
Look closer, and the design differ¬
ences get bigger.
The motherboard is actually only one-
third of the heart of the system, it does
not contain any of the major processing
elements. Instead, all those dements, in¬
cluding the 80386, the 80387 socket, the
82385, and the cache itself, are on a re¬
movable CPU card that connects to a pro¬
prietary 32-bit slot on the far left side of
the system (see photo t)> That board
alone contains 32 chips, not counting the
16 SRAM chips. The 80387 socket also
has the extra pins to support a Weitek co¬
processor, but a Tandy spokesperson
said that Tandy does not currently sell
the Weitek coprocessor for the 5000 MC.
The system's memory is on yet an¬
other board, a Tandy memory -expansion
adapter that plugs into another propri¬
etary 32-bit slot on the right side of the
motherboard next to the power supply.
That board can hold eight single in-line
memory modules. In my unit, it had
eight 256K-byte SIMMs, giving the sys¬
tem its standard 2 megabytes of memory.
There is a second proprietary 32-bit
slot next to this one that can hold another
memory-expansion adapter, so you can
ramp up memory to 4 megabytes with
256K-byte SIMMs. While Tandy does
not currently offer 1 -megabyte SIMMs, a
Tandy spokesperson said that it plans to
do so in the near future. When these
larger SIMMs are available, you'll be
able to put up to 16 megabytes of memory
on the system using these two boards.
Those two slots and the CPU board
slot are all dedicated to their particular
tasks, and they will not support any other
cards. They all use AT-style connectors
that look almost fat next to the sleek
Micro Channel connectors. Both mem¬
ory-expansion boards and the main
motherboard are made by Tandy,
The five Micro Channel-compatible
slots are on the main motherboard. Two
of them are 32-bit Micro Channel -com¬
patible slots, while the other three are 16-
bit slots. One of the 16-bit slots includes
the special high-speed video connector
that you'll also find on a PS/2,
The motherboard supports the CPU
board, memory board(s), and expansion
slots, as well as all the external connec¬
tors, with a whopping 150-plus chips.
That's more chips than I have seen on any
other 80386-based system’s mother¬
board. The motherboard is also oddly
shaped, like an L with an extra bit hang¬
ing from the junction of the two sides.
The motherboard in my unit was a
Rev. A model, and it showed its youth, I
counted 25 wire traces, including several
that were over a foot long, that marked
circuit design changes.
The motherboard does the bulk of the
work of supporting the Micro Channel-
style bus with the five-chip Intel Micro
Channel chip set. It also contains the
ROM BIOS, which is Phoenix's 80386
Advanced ROM BIOS version 1.01.02,
Like most high-speed 80386 systems, the
5000 MC copies the ROM BIOS into
RAM at boot time for faster access.
Finally, in total defiance of the PS/2
autoconfiguration philosophy, the
motherboard contains two banks of eight
DIP switches each and eight jumpers.
The DIP switches and some of the
jumpers control the system's memory
settings, and you have to adjust them if
you add more memory on one of Tandy's
memory-expansion adapters.
Diverging Design
Of course, it's not always bad to be dif¬
ferent from the PS/2s. Most PS/2s have
room for only one hard disk drive. The
5000 MC, on the other hand, has one
3!^ -inch half-height drive area and a
5Va -inch drive bay that can hold either
one full-height drive or two half-height
drives.
In my unit, the 3 ’A-inch area held an
80-megabyte hard disk drive From Rigi-
dyne, a subsidiary of Control Data Corp,
An Adaptec ST -506 controller in one of
the expansion slots manages that drive,
Tandy claims an average access time of
16 milliseconds for the drive, but, based
on its performance on BYTE's disk tests,
either it or the controller is really falling
down on the job. Based on what I know of
CDC drives, my guess is that the Adap¬
tec controller is guilty, but I could not
confirm that guess.
Tandy also offers a wealth of options
to go into the drive areas, including hard
disk drives of up to 344 megabytes, sev¬
eral models of tape drives, and 5% -inch
floppy diskdrives.
Skin Deep
When you put the 5000 MC back togeth¬
er and turn it on, you can forget the engi¬
neering inside and pretend again that it's
a PS/2.
Its 101-key keyboard follows the IBM
Enhanced layout. The keyboard has a
very light, springy touch, with a good
audible key click.
Tandy included its VGM-300 analog
color monitor with the review unit. The
display was very crisp and clear, al¬
though its standard font is a bit unusual.
continued
200 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
*$1695— Mode! 3610 C/D
(not shown)
Same style as 3600 A-D
Handles C & D size media
Affordab'
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$2695.
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3600 A
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Features that say value . . .
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plotter.
Practical speed you can really use: 10" per
second assures good drawing throughput while
optimizing the speed at which most plotter pens
can draw without skipping.
Repeatability and Resolution: .004 assures qual¬
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including PCB artwork.
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Circle 254 on Reader Service Card
Unique: X&Y rescaling allows calibration to
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CALL NOW AND WE’LL SEND YOU
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Dealer inquiries invited.
404 9 1 E ncy clop e d i a C i r cle
Fremont, California 94538
Made in USA DM/PL is a trademark of Houston Instrument
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 201
REVIEW
A PS/2 IN CHANNEL ONLY
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While you’re looking at the monitor
you can’t help but notice a few things on
the front of the unit. One is the big FCC
Class A sticker that proudly proclaims
the 5000 MC to be a “business com¬
puter.” Just above it is a keylock that
locks the case, not the keyboard. More
interesting are the reset and power
switches that are on the left and right
sides, respectively. The red reset switch
is recessed so that you are not likely to
push it accidentally.
The oddly shaped, green power switch
is another matter. It is only half an inch
to the right of the Vh -inch floppy disk
drive, so it is just aching for an acciden¬
tal push. It is also one of the most pecu¬
liar pieces of engineering I have seen in a
while: Inside, it proves to be the tip of a
9-inch bar of the same green plastic that
stretches from the front of the unit to a
mechanical switch on the rear of the
power supply at the back of the unit. A
thin cable snakes through the bar from
the motherboard to the tiny indicator
light in the tip of the switch. Cute as the
switch is, it’s dangerous to put a power
switch that looks suspiciously like an
eject button right next to a floppy disk
drive, and Tandy should move it in fu¬
ture systems.
The Soft Stuff
The only standard software is Tandy’s
reference disk. This disk contains pro¬
grams that autoconfigure the system, do
low-level disk formats, give information
about power-on self test (POST) error
messages, and let you access a few of the
system’s more unusual features.
These features include passwords for
power-on and keyboard usage, as well as
for the 5000 MC’s use as a network
server. You can also set both the key¬
board’s repeat rate and its speed of re¬
sponding to key depressions to a faster
speed than normal.
One common software feature of most
80386-based systems that the 5000 MC
lacks is the ability to set the CPU to a
slower compatibility speed. A Tandy
spokesperson said that the 5000 MC is
based on the IBM PS/2 Model 80, and
that it does not include a way to slow the
CPU because the Model 80 does not. I
had no problem with my copy-protected
Lotus 1-2-3 system disk, which often re¬
quires a slower speed when loading the
program, but the lack of this ability could
be a problem for some older programs.
The Tandy 5000 MC Installation and
Operation Manual explains all the func¬
tions of the reference disk software. It’s a
small, 42-page manual, but it is read¬
able, includes an index, and takes you
from unpacking through memory-con¬
figuration DIP switch settings.
Of course, sometimes things go wrong
that you can’t solve with any amount of
documentation. That’s when a com¬
pany’s technical-support system comes
into play.
If you have questions, you can call any
local Tandy computer center or computer
service and support center. I tried a few
of the ones in my area, but because the
5000 MC is just barely shipping now,
they really couldn’t help me with any¬
thing specific to its Micro Channel-com¬
patible features. They were, however,
helpful with a few of the usual MS-DOS
problems that I threw at them.
A 1-year parts-and-labor warranty
comes with the 5000 MC. While Tandy
will repair your unit only at one of its
roughly 155 service and support centers,
you can take the system to any Tandy
store, even a Radio Shack, and the com¬
pany will get the unit to and from the ser¬
vice center at no charge to you.
You can also pay an additional fee for
on-site service during that first year. The
price depends on what you’ve got on your
unit and how close you are to one of
Tandy’s service and support centers. For
example, if you’re within 50 miles of a
center and you have a 40-megabyte hard
disk drive in your 5000 MC, the first
year of on-site service costs $330.
Tandy also sells additional years of
service, either on-site or carry-in, for
fees that, again, depend on your system’s
configuration and your distance from a
service center.
Do You Need a PS/2?
All engineering complaints aside, the
5000 MC is a reasonable Micro Chan¬
nel-compatible alternative to IBM’s
PS/2 machines. It’s a first-generation
Micro Channel clone, so you have to ex¬
pect some rough spots, and there are
bound to be some incompatibilities that
my testing did not uncover. Still, the
5000 MC is a good first step, and Tandy
has already proved that it is going to be a
player in the PC world for some time.
The big question is whether you’re
content to stick with the AT-style bus, or
if you want to move to the Micro Chan¬
nel. If you’ve decided that the Micro
Channel bus is for you, the 5000 MC of¬
fers an interesting alternative that is both
cheaper and faster than the comparable
IBM 20-MHz 80386-based PS/2s. ■
Mark L. Van Name is a freelance writer
and computer consultant living in Dur¬
ham, North Carolina. He can be reached
on BIX c/o “editors. ”
202 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
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FEBRUARY 1989 'BYTE 203
'
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NEW MINI PORTABLE
BEST-286 LCD
□ 10 MHZ 0 WAIT (12 MHZ Option)
□ 512 K RAM
□ 1 .2 M. Floppy Drive
□ 30 MB Hard Disk (Seagate 138 28ms)
□ 200 w DC Fan Power Supply
D Serial & Parallel
□ Non-Glare LCD Screen
□ Super Twist
□ Built-In Back Light
□ 640 x 200 Dots
□ Weight 22 lbs
O Padded Soft Carry Bag
□ Dimension 1 6" x 8" x 9"
BEST-286 PORTABLE
VTI-33 SYSTEM
□ 8083-2 10 MHz
□ 640 K RAM
□ 2 360K Floppy Drive
□ Serial, Parallel Rod
□ Clock, Calender
□ AT Style Keyboard
□ Build in Mono/Cotor Graphic
□ MONO MONITOR
□ MS-DOS 3.3, GW Baste
□ 10 MHZ (12 MHZ Optional)
□ 512 K RAM
□ One 1.2 MB Floppy Drive
o 7 Ex pension Slots
□ 200 W DC Fan Power Supply
□ 9m Dual Amber Screen
O Mono or Color Graphic Card
□ Serial & Parallel Rod
O 84 Key Soft Tough Key Board
$1115
BEST-88 PORTABLE $845
$1600
286 BABY MOTHER BOARD PORTABLE CASE
10 MHZ $265 9” Dual Amber Monitor
12 MHZ $295 200 W Power Supply
Mono Monitor $79 $359
Fujitsu 101 Enhance Keyboard $45 LCD CASE
640 X 200 Dots $549
VTI-55 SYSTEM
EGA PLUS 640 X 4S0
(Paradise Compatible)
□ 80286 8/12 MHz
□ 64GK-1 20 ns
□ 1.2 MB Floppy Drive
□ 30 MB Hard Disk Seagate 138
(28 ms) with IMCL Controller
□ 2 Serial 1 Parallel
D Clock Calender
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□ MS-DOS 3.3. GW Basic
$1699
MONO SYSTEM $1 399
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Software Review
Three
Assemblers
for MS-DOS
TASM and OPTASM
challenge the
long-dominant MASM
Michael Blaszczak
Programmers have long known
that a computer's native assem¬
bly language is the best choice
for the fastest code, Micro¬
soft's Macro Assembler, or MASM
($150), has been the definitive assembler
for IBM PCs. Now there are two chal¬
lengers: Borland's Turbo Assembler, or
TASM ($150), and SLR Systems' OP¬
TASM, for optimizing assembler ($125).
Each of these three assemblers has
unique strengths. MASM is the one the
others imitate, and it's the only one that
supports OS/2 development. TASM
comes closest to matching MASM on a
feature-by-feature basis, runs faster, and
bends over backward to make program¬
ming in assembly language easier. OP¬
TASM runs faster yet and can optimize
certain troublesome assembly language
constructs. They're all worthy tools— I
used each to assemble and link working
versions of three programs that comprise
thousands of lines of code. In this re¬
view, Fll try to help you figure out which
assembler best suits your needs.
An assembly language development
system includes more than just an assem¬
bler. You've got to have a linker, too, and
you'd like to have a debugger, a librar¬
ian, a make facility, and comprehensive
documentation. Assembly language pro¬
gramming is tricky, and a good debug¬
ger is worth its weight in gold— especial¬
ly when you're interfacing assembly with
a high-level language.
Both MASM and TASM come with
top-notch symbolic debuggers that en¬
able you to view and manipulate your
program in terms of source- level sym¬
bols and labels, as well as full comple¬
ments of other support tools. OPTASM is
a bare-bones package by comparison.
There's no debugger or linker, and you
have to spend an extra $50 to get the op¬
tional librarian. SLR Systems does, how¬
ever, plan to provide more tools in a
forthcoming release of OPTASM. See
table l for a comparison of the features
that the three packages offer.
Microsoft’s MASM
MASM has evolved considerably during
its long life (long by microcomputing
standards, that is). MASM 5.1 is the
newest version of the product. The pack¬
age includes the OS/2 -capable MASM
assembler; CodeView, Microsoft's full-
screen symbolic debugger; and the
Microsoft linker, librarian, text editor,
and make tool .
MASM comes with ample documenta¬
tion. A reference manual describes the
assembler itself, and a particularly use¬
ful update outlines the differences be¬
tween the current MASM and its previ¬
ous incarnations, A utilities manual
details the use of CodeView and the
other tools supplied with MASM, The
Mixed Language Programming Guide
tells you how to interface assembly mod¬
ules with Microsoft C, Pascal, FOR¬
TRAN, and BASIC programs. Microsoft
also includes a 1 48 -page reference book¬
let that enumerates the instruction set,
discusses each instruction's side effects,
and notes how many clock cycles each in¬
struction consumes.
The quality of the documentation is
generally quite good, but I have a few
complaints. The manuals are full of ex¬
amples, but they're usually fragmen¬
tary — few are complete and ready to run.
The descriptions of instructions that have
a rich variety of addressing modes, like
MOV and JMP, get short shrift; there's
no elaboration on how to declare labels or
data to be addressed by each mode.
There is a finished program included
with the package— SHOW R. ASM, a file-
listing tool— but none of the documents
mentions it. In some cases I thought the
documentation failed to describe an im¬
portant technique. The Mixed Language
Programming Guide, for example,
doesn’t tell you how to define data areas
and variables in an assembly module for
later reference in a high-level-language
program. And while the discussion of the
LES and LDS instructions plainly shows
how to use them to load a doubleword
(representing a far pointer) from mem¬
ory into a pair of registers, it doesn't help
you figure out how to set up a doubleword
in memory for use in this context.
Putting MASM to Work
MASM was the slowest of the three as¬
semblers. TASM was about twice as fast,
and OPTASM about three times as fast
(see tables 2,3, and 4). And MASM was
the fussiest— that is, it complained the
most, MASM uses a two-pass method to
assemble a module. On the first pass, it
reads the source file and generates code.
On the second pass, it rereads the source
file and works on the code it produced to
resolve the addresses of symbols and the
sizes of op codes.
That's a good strategy, but MASM
runs into some problems. For example,
here's a line from MS-Kermit, one of the
three test programs I used:
mov bx,seg serdum
This instruction moves the segment part
of the address of serdum, a forward ref¬
erence to a label, MASM's second pass
produced a so-called ‘"phase error*' that,
after some head-scratching, I eventually
resolved by expressing the value 1 wanted
to load into the BX register in a different
and less mnemonic way:
mov bxjcode
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 205
REVIEW
THREE ASSEMBLERS FOR MS-DOS
Table 1: A list of M ASM, TASM, and OPTASM features.
MASM
TASM
OPTASM
Installation program
Yes
Yes
No
Macros
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optimization
No
Some
Yes
Simplified segments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Warning level
Three levels
All switchable
On/off
Editor
Yes
No
No
OS/2-compatible
Yes
No
No
Tutorial
No
Yes
No
80386/80387 support
Yes
Yes
No
Local labels in PROC
No
Yes
Yes
Microsoft HLL interface
Yes
Yes
No
Debugger
Yes
Yes
No
Linker
Yes
Yes
No
Overlay linker
Yes
No
No
Librarian
Yes
Yes
No
.OBJ utilities
None
One
None
.EXE utilities
Three
No
No
MAKE utility
Yes
Yes
Yes1
Cross reference
Yes
Yes
Yes2
On-line help
No
No
Yes
On-disk examples
One
Many
Two3
1 OPTASM 's MAKE utility is nonstandard and integrated with the assembler.
2 OPTASM 's CREF utility is integral to the assembler.
3 One of OPTASM's two example files highlights the problems with MASM solved by OPTASM.
Table 2: Assembly time for NJRAMD, a RAM disk program.
Assembly time
.OBJ size
.SYS size
(seconds)
(bytes)
(bytes)
OPTASM
1.7
3758
1897
TASM
2.6
4673
1899
MASM
5.6
4379
1899
Table 3: Assembly time for MS-Kermit.
Assembly time
.OBJ size
.EXE size
(seconds)
(bytes)
(bytes)
OPTASM
45.4
101,581
86,032
TASM
67.6
171,336
86,157
MASM
165.7
133,780
86,160
Table 4: Assembly time for the Greenleaf communications library.
Assembly time
.OBJ size
(seconds)
(bytes)
OPTASM
26.9
5522
TASM
51.6
8058
MASM
81.7
6122
The message associated with the phase
error wasn’t too helpful, as it occurred
several lines after the instruction in ques¬
tion. In the end I had to use MASM’s /D
command-line option to produce a first-
pass listing, then study that for a while to
figure out what was happening.
MASM will also pad your code with
extra NOP instructions in a variety of sit¬
uations. This happens when you use a
JMP instruction to reach a label that lies
within a 128-byte range, or when, as
shown in listing 1, you use a test in¬
struction with a forward reference and
immediate data.
One of the biggest improvements in
this version of MASM is the support for
mixed-language programming. It’s al¬
ways tough to remember the protocols
you need to follow to build assembly sub¬
routines that you can call from C or Pas¬
cal. MASM now provides new simpli¬
fied segment declaration directives and
extensions of standard directives that
greatly simplify the proper declaration
of segments, groups, and public labels.
Support for the 80386 processor is an¬
other major improvement. With the .386-
directive, you can use MASM to create
DOS programs that will take advantage
of the extra registers, addressing modes,
and instructions of the 80386.
Finally, MASM and LINK are now
dual-mode executables that will run
under both DOS and OS/2. They can be
used to create other dual-mode programs
or to create programs that exploit the
protected modes of the 80286 and 80386.
The MASM Toolkit
Much has been said and written about
CodeView— it’s an excellent debugger—
so I’ll just mention a couple of favorite
features. I’m particularly impressed by
its ability to view structured data, fol¬
lowing pointers as necessary. Code-
View’s support for the Intel numeric co¬
processors is another strong point— you
can dump the status of the coprocessor to
the screen during debugging. That, in
conjunction with MASM’s ability to as¬
semble all the special math op codes, has
saved me a great deal of trouble on nu¬
merically intensive projects. CodeView
can use expanded memory to keep sym¬
bolic information out of the way of the
executing program. Serious professional
users may want to consider buying a
hardware debugger, but for my purposes
CodeView is entirely sufficient.
Microsoft’s linker is slower than
TLINK, the Borland linker, but provides
good support for program overlays. It’s
relatively straightforward to create over¬
lay sections. You do need an overlay han-
206 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
REVIEW
THREE ASSEMBLERS FOR MS-DOS
M icrosof t Macro Asse mbler B. 1
Borland Turbo Assembler 1,0
OPTASM 1.5
Type
M aero ■ base d assem bter
Macro* based assembler
Optimizing macro-based
assembler
Company
Microsoft Corp,
16011 Northeast 36th Way
PO. Box 97017
Redmond. WA 98073
(206) 882 8088
Borland International
1800 Green Hills Rd.
P.O. Box 660001
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
(800) 543-7543
(408) 438-8400
SLR Systems
1622 North Mam St.
Butler, PA 16001
(412) 282-0864
Format
Four double-sided, double-density
5 W -inch floppy disks
Three double-sided, double¬
density 514-inch floppy disks
Th ree do u ble- sided, do u ble-
density 5 ’A -inch floppy disks
Language
C
C
Assembly
Hardware Needed
IBM PC or compatible with 128K.
bytes of available memory; a hard
disk drive is recommended
IBM PC or compatible with 256K
bytes of available memory; a hard
disk drive is recommended
IBM PC or compatible with 128K
bytes of available memory; a hard
disk drive is recommended
Software Needed
PC-DOS or MS-DOS 2.00 or
higher
PC -DOS or MS-DOS 2,00 or
higher
PC-DOS or MS-DOS 2,00 or
higher
Documentation
1 23-page reference for the MASM
5.1 update; 467-page
Programmer's Guide for MASM
5.0; 139 page Mixed Language
Programming Guide; 40 2 -page
CodeView and Utilities reference;
14 8- page reference booklet
296-page Reference Guide; 582-
page User's Guide
323-page reference for OPTASM;
56 page booklet for OPTLIB
Price
$150
$150
$125 for OPTASM
$50 for OPTLIB
Enquiry 1055.
Inquiry 1056.
Inquiry 1057.
dler, but, although none is included with
the assembler, you can add the overlay
handler from any Microsoft high-level -
language run-time library to your exe¬
cutable code at I i nk t i me .
The Microsoft MAKE program mim¬
ics Unix make closely. It’s small, so you
don't run into trouble executing other
tools from within it. It features a well-de¬
veloped macro facility. And there's a
suite of tools— EXE PACK. CVPACK,
and EXEMOD — that squeeze executa¬
bles and modify program headers.
MASM takes some getting used to, but
it gets the job done. MASM does have
more than its fair share of frustrating
quirks and oddities, but it's always con¬
sidered to be the standard for general-
purpose work. And if you're doing OS/2
development, it's the only game in town.
SLR Systems’ OPTASM
OPTASM is a lean and mean package
aimed squarely at seasoned program¬
mers, It comes with one concise refer¬
ence book that covers ail the bases. As
the name implies, OPTASM is an opti¬
mizing macro assembler. The program
makes all the passes needed to resolve
addresses of symbols and op-code sizes.
OPTASM can pick the most efficient
version of the JMP op code automati¬
cally, and it will even expand conditional
branches that are out of range into the ap¬
propriate instructions to make the jump
possible. Given listing 1, for example,
OPTASM would rewrite the jnc instruc¬
tion— which specifies a jump to an out-
of- range label— like this:
clc
jnc locally
jmp nearly
locally:
REFT 150
nop
ENDM
nearly:
This frees the programmer from the task
of keeping track of ranges when coding
conditional jumps, OPTASM also opti¬
mizes far jump and far call instructions
and provides directives that allow pop¬
ping and pushing more than one register
on a line of code. These optimizations
seem trivial, but the net effect is a big
saving of effort, particularly when devel¬
op i ng I a rge r modu les .
The manual provides descriptions of
simplified segment declarations that are
much clearer than Microsoft’s, The
manual also takes greater care in ex¬
plaining the physical loading order of
segments in a multisegment program and
clearly explains how the ALIGN, COM¬
BINE, and CLASS keywords control the
behavior of LINK,
OPTASM is generally compatible with
version 5.0 of MASM but omits several
features that were added to version 5.1.
MASM’s enhanced .MODEL directive,
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 207
REVIEW
THREE ASSEMBLERS FOR MS-DOS
Listing 1: Only TASM handles this code cleanly.
; Microsoft and Borland allow the programmer
; to define the high-level language this module
; will be used with. OPTASM does not.
.MODEL small, c
.CODE
; Microsoft and Borland allow the specification
; of high-level-language function parameters
; in the PROC line. OPTASM doesn't.
sample PROC parml:word, parm2:word
; Microsoft and Borland permit you to
; declare local variables. OPTASM doesn't.
LOCAL varl: word, var2: word
mov ax, 35 ; mov 35 into
mov varl, ax ; load varl
clc
jnc faraway ; We can't conditionally jump to a
; label that is more than 128 bytes
; away. OPTASM reconstructs this
; with functionally equivalent code.
; TASM and MASM produce errors.
REPT 150
nop
ENDM
; This construct causes MASM to
; generate a phase error.
faraway :
test forwardref,3
; MASM generates an extra NOP here.
; TASM and OPTASM don't.
mov cx,messagelen
ret
sample ENDP
.DATA
forwardref
db
01234h
message
db
"This is a string. ", 13 ,10
messagelen
equ
this byte - message
END
for example, lets you name the language
from which you’ll be calling your assem¬
bly routine; OPTASM complains about
the .MODEL directive in listing 1 for
this reason. Nor does OPTASM support
MASM’s improved PROC and LOCAL
directives; PROC declares parameters
that the assembly routine expects to find
on the stack, and LOCAL declares and
symbolically addresses local variables.
These incompatibilities aren’t a problem
if you start a project from scratch with
OPTASM, but they’ll complicate your
life if you’re porting code from MASM
to OPTASM.
OPTASM comes with an on-line help
system that delivers information about
the assembler and the Intel op codes. It’s
handy, but its lOOK-byte memory re¬
quirement seems excessive. There’s a
CONFIG program that you can use to set
OPTASM ’s defaults; alternately, you can
use environment variables to achieve the
same effect. The MAKE facility is inte¬
gral with the assembler, not a separate
tool. It uses nonstandard make files that
aren’t compatible with other MAKE pro¬
grams. There’s no debugger, although
you can use the /ZD option to get OP¬
TASM to insert line-number information
for use in conjunction with CodeView
and other debuggers. There’s no linker,
and the librarian, OPTLIB, costs an
extra $50.
OPTASM ’s big draws are its speed and
the compactness of the code it produces.
No question about it, OPTASM trounces
MASM and TASM in both categories.
Serious assembly language programmers
working on projects that don’t require
MASM’s newest features— for example,
the J86 directive and the enhanced
.MODEL, PROC, and LOCAL direc¬
tives— will definitely want to look at this
package.
Borland’s TASM
Borland’s TASM now ships as part of the
Borland professional packages. Turbo C
2.0 contains release 1 .0 of the assembler
and version 2.0 of Borland’s linker. Also
included are a librarian and several other
utilities, as well as the Turbo Debugger.
Turbo Pascal 5.0 contains the same pro¬
grams. You can buy just the assembler
and debugger separately for $150.
Unlike MASM and OPTASM, TASM
comes with a strong tutorial on assembly
programming that programmers more
familiar with languages like Pascal and
C will find extremely useful. But I found
the reference material skimpy— the dis¬
cussion of STRUCT and UNION direc¬
tives, for example, was quite inadequate.
And Borland’s softbound manuals are
troublesome; you can’t leave one open to
a particular page without using an extra
hand or a paperweight. The sample pro¬
grams, however, are excellent. The dis¬
tribution disks contain copies of all the
examples in the documentation, and
there are also three complete utility pro¬
grams ready to assemble, link, and run.
Borland has gone to great lengths to
make TASM compatible with MASM.
There are two directives that govern
MASM compatibility. The MASM51 di¬
rective provides full emulation of version
5.1 of Microsoft’s product. And there’s
even a QUIRKS directive that causes
TASM to mimic some of MASM’s infa¬
mous peculiarities.
The Turbo Debugger matches Code¬
View feature for feature and, although it
doesn’t support mice, implements an
intuitive point-and-shoot interface.
There’s a useful Get Info command that
maps DOS memory, expanded memory,
and any interrupts the target program
may have snatched. And if you’re debug¬
ging 8086 software on an 80386 machine
that has 700K bytes of extended memory,
you can use the “virtual debugger,”
TD386, to create a virtual 8086 on which
to debug your program. The resulting en¬
vironment is close to what you get with a
hardware debugger.
TASM runs faster than MASM but
slower than OPTASM. But— and here’s
the most important point— TASM alone
cleanly assembled everything I fed it. In
208 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
REVIEW
THREE ASSEMBLERS FOR MS-DOS
a sense, TASM gives you the best of both
worlds: MASM compatibility without
MASM’s glitches.
TASM Extras
Borland has also made an effort to ratio¬
nalize MASM’s syntax. The .IDEAL di¬
rective invokes “ideal mode.” If you use
this mode, you trade away MASM com¬
patibility for improved readability— par¬
ticularly with respect to addressing
modes. For example, the MASM con¬
struct
mov ax,4[bx][si]
(which looks like multiplication but
isn’t) is illegal in TASM’s ideal mode,
which instead requires the more intel¬
ligible
mov ax, [4+bx+si]
The improvement is considerable and
will certainly help beginners. The bene¬
fits of some of the other constructs re¬
quired by ideal mode are less clear-cut.
For example, ideal mode requires that
you put names before keywords, so that
the MASM construct
PROC myproc near
becomes
myproc PROC near
which, in my opinion, isn’t a big win.
The nicest thing about ideal mode is
that it lets you use the same identifier in
more than one structure. There are some
drawbacks. Because symbols can’t start
with a period in ideal mode, you have to
relearn certain MASM directives— for
example, .286 and .XALL become
P286N and %NOMACS. And unlike
MASM, TASM’s ideal mode requires
you to explicitly quote strings used in
conjunction with directives.
The Borland toolkit includes TLINK,
the linker; TLIB, an object-module li¬
brarian; TCREF, a cross-referencing
utility; and MAKE. Borland’s MAKE is
slightly more powerful than Microsoft’s
because it implements predefined
macros like include, IF, and ENDIF
that improve the programmability of the
MAKE facility. Borland also includes a
wonderful program called OBJXREF. It
can read a group of object files and list
the public names that each one declares,
as well as the external labels that each
module relies on. Like OPTASM, TASM
doesn’t include utilities that manipulate
.EXE files.
TASM is the recommended choice for
programmers with little assembly expe¬
rience. It’s geared for use with Turbo C
and Turbo Pascal but doesn’t require
those products. You can create stand¬
alone applications with TASM, and you
can interface TASM modules to pro¬
grams written in Microsoft high-level
languages without any trouble.
Putting the Packages through
Their Paces
To test the packages, I used each to as¬
semble three different sets of assembly
language routines: my own NJRAMD, a
RAM disk program; MS-Kermit, a
25,000-line assembly version of the pop¬
ular communications program; and the
Greenleaf communications library.
NJRAMD makes extensive use of condi¬
tional directives and structures; the other
two programs include header files that
perform lots of symbol equates and de¬
fine a number of macros.
I ran the tests on an 8-MHz PC’s
Limited 286 with 640K bytes of mem¬
ory, using a RAM disk. As the results
show, OPTASM runs fastest and pro¬
duces the smallest .OBJ files. TASM
comes in second in terms of speed, and
MASM takes second place in .OBJ size.
Most of the code-size differences vanish,
though, when you look at the sizes of the
linked .SYS and .EXE files. OPTASM
writes a highly compact set of .OBJ
records, but the difference between it
and the others in terms of the actual
quantity of executable code, while per¬
ceptible, is quite small.
While my benchmarks showed TASM
to be somewhere between MASM and
OPTASM for performance, it offers a
nice combination of MASM support and
OPTASM ’s assembly language optimiza¬
tion skills. TASM provides conditional
jump extensions and doesn’t trip up on
source code that MASM is not able to
handle.
All three assemblers do the job; none
is perfect. Choose the one that’s right for
you. If you’re doing OS/2 development,
your choice will obviously be MASM. If
raw speed is critical, you don’t need
OS/2 support or guaranteed MASM
compatibility, and you’ve got the neces¬
sary support tools, use OPTASM. My
personal favorite is TASM. For my
money, it’s got the best mix of speed,
MASM compatibility, and overall ease
of use. ■
Michael Blaszczak, a University of Hart¬
ford student , provides technical support
for NWI of East Hartford , Connecticut.
He can be reached on BIX c/o “editors. ”
A Wealth of
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FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 209
PROTECTION
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210 BYTE4 FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 238 on Reader Sewice Card
Application Review
New bells and whistles
in Ashton-Tate’s
spreadsheet
for the Mac
Diana Gabaldon
Full Impact is not, as you might
think, the latest Dirty Harry
film. It's AshtonTate’s Macin¬
tosh spreadsheet package, the
latest entry in a line of Mac office soft¬
ware, meant for those who like their bal¬
ance sheets with bells on.
Full Impact sells for $395 and runs on
a Mac Plus, SE, or II with 1 megabyte of
memory and two 800K-byte floppy disk
drives, but to use it effectively you need
2 megabytes of memory, one floppy disk
drive, and a hard disk drive. It works with
System 4. 1 and Finder 5:5 or higher.
Like FuliWrite, Ashion-Tate’s word
processor/desktop publisher reviewed in
the November 1988 BYTE, Full Impact
is heavily loaded with presentation-
graphics features and is excellent in some
performance areas.
One of the most striking features is
Full Impact’s drawing capability, which
allows you to draw shapes, add graphs
and charts to them, and store everything
with the spreadsheet in a single file.
While Microsoft’s Excel allows you to
add charts and text to a spreadsheet, its
drawing capability is not as flexible, and
you must store graphics separately from
the spreadsheet.
Full Impact’s drawing display is actu¬
ally a “layer” that lies over the spread¬
sheet itself. The layer containing the
graphics can be transparent or opaque,
letting the spreadsheet show through the
Full Impact
view of charts and graphics orblocking it
out. Graphics elements can also be easily
adjusted to overlay each other in various
combinations' in other words, you can
place an oval on top of a rectangle, then
move the oval behind the rectangle, then
move it up front again. In addition to
ovals and rectangles, you can draw
rounded-corner rectangles, lines, under¬
lines and outlines for single cells or
blocks, and all the standard types of
charts; pie, bar, stacked-bar, line, area,
scatter, and high-low -close.
Easy Interface
Aside from its presentation features, Full
Impact’s major attraction is its ease of
use. Instead of the usual spreadsheet
Worksheet Global. . .Quit menu across
the top of the screen, Full Impact, taking
full advantage of the Mac interface, has
an icon bar in which icons represent some
of the more commonly used features,
such as “fill down,” “fill across,"' and
“define range.” The icon bar is really
two alternating icon bars, which provide
a wide range of functions. You can also
customize the bar to allow for using your
favorite functions via icon.
This interface is another major differ¬
ence between Full Impact and Excel,
which has the standard type of spread¬
sheet menu. While Excel also allows you
to add graphics to a spreadsheet, they are
shown in separate, smaller windows that
overlay the spreadsheet. In Full Impact,
the graphics elements are shown in the
spreadsheet itself, in the actual positions
where they will appear.
You can add text to a spreadsheet just
as easily as graphics. Define an area
where you want the text to go, and once
defined, this area can be moved, resized,
or pasted wherever you want it, no matter
what text it contains. And within the text
window, you have word-wrapped text,
with the usual Mac fonts, type sizes, and
type styles available.
You can reduce and enlarge a spread¬
sheet to preview a formatted page, but
this is a rather tedious business, as you
must keep reducing over and over, a bit at
a time, to arrive at a view of a whole
page. Page formatting is supported to the
extent of standard margins, headers, and
footers, but not much more.
One difficulty in running any spread¬
sheet package on a Mac is, of course, the
restricted screen area available. By the
time you take three lines off the top of the
screen for the main menu bar, icon bar,
and data-entry bar, and another line off
the bottom and a space at each side for
neat appearance, you’re left with the
electronic equivalent of a 3- by 5- inch
index card to work in. Full Impact reme¬
dies this limitation to some extent by al¬
lowing you to have up to eight views of a
spreadsheet open concurrently. This is
the equivalent of having the spreadsheet
visible in eight separate windows, except
that the windows overlay each other,
rather than being tiled.
Full Impact provides one refinement
in spacing. While most spreadsheets let
you adjust column width, this one also
lets you adjust row height, so you can ex¬
pand any cell in both dimensions.
Full Functionality
Full Impact has all the standard spread¬
sheet functions and a few extras, as well.
You can, of course, enter date and time
as ID markers or “time stamps,” You
can also use them as values, to calculate
items such as payment dates or peak
sales periods. There is a NUM2C func¬
tion that converts a numeric value to a
text string so that you can insert it in a
macro that uses text and numbers togeth¬
er. As a nice touch, you can select dis¬
continuous areas of the spreadsheet.
Also, Full Impact allows you to cut and
paste spreadsheet areas to the Clipboard
for easy transfer, while Excel does not.
Functions include Math, Logic,
String, Database, Statistics, Time, and
Spreadsheet submenus. The Math sub¬
menu includes trigonometric and log
continued
FEBRUARY J 9S9 * BYTE 211
REVIEW
FULL IMPACT
Fulilmpact 1.0
Type
Spreadsheet
Company
AshtonTate
20101 Hamilton Ave.
Torrance, CA 90502
{213) 329-8000
Format
Four 3Yz-inch 800K-byte floppy disks
Hardware Needed
Mac Plus, SE, or II with a minimum of 1
megabyte of memory (2 megabytes
recommended) and two SQQK-byte
floppy disk drives
Software Needed
System 4.1 and Finder 5.5 or higher
Language
C
Documentation
1 80-page user's manual
Price
$395
Inquiry 1066,
functions as well as all the standard math
functions such as exponentiation and
square root. The Spreadsheet submenu
has functions that locate values in the
spreadsheet and evaluate certain attri¬
butes. The Horizontal Index Lookup, for
example, searches from left to right
across the first row of a specified range
until it finds a specified value. Then it
gives the count of the cells searched.
The software also supports a sophisti¬
cated macro language. You can use Bool¬
ean logic to set conditions in macros, and
you can construct “smart" macros—
those capable of taking alternative ac¬
tions, depending on the conditions en¬
countered. Macros can also pass param¬
eters to functions called by the macro.
There is an Undo function that can be
called from a macro and elsewhere in a
spreadsheet, but Undo cannot be re¬
corded as part of a macro.
You can set the recalculation for man¬
ual, regular automatic recalculation, and
automatic recalculation at intervals you
choose. You can also set an auto-save op¬
tion, which automatically saves the
spreadsheet and data at intervals you
specify. You can protect individual cells
and ranges against accidental change, but
unlike Excel, Full Impact doesn't let you
build a protected spreadsheet. In Excel,
you can lock some cells and leave others
212 BYTE * FEBRUARY 1989
“open1' for change. Both programs sup¬
port password protection for files.
Flexible Operation
There is more than one way to do most
things in Full Impact, For example, you
can enter information in cells using the
keyboard, the icon bar, or a combination
of both. I found the icon bar very annoy¬
ing to start with, but once I got used to it,
using the icon bar was often faster than
using the keyboard. I still prefer to enter
formulas using the keyboard, but some
functions, such as range definition, work
very nicely with icons. This flexibility
adds greatly to the package's friendliness
and ease of use.
You can import information into a
spreadsheet from other software, such as
Microsoft Multiplan or Excel, or even
from such DOS programs as Lotus 1-2-3
and the various versions of d BASE— pro¬
vided you have suitable communications
hardware and software for linking your
DOS machine with your Mac. I tried
transferring a small dBASE III file,
using LapLink Mac, and found that it
worked fine, although the transfer was
slow. It also successfully imported a file
(but not the macros) created by Lotus
1-2-3 version LG.
Imported spreadsheets are limited to
2048 rows by 256 columns. When you
import records from a database such as
dBASE, this limitation means that you
can import a maximum of 2047 records,
since the field names from the database
file occupy the first row. This size limi¬
tation is one of the most important differ¬
ences between Full Impact and Excel.
While a Full Impact spreadsheet can
have no more than 2048 rows (whether
imported or generated by Full Impact),
Excel allows more than 16,000 rows.
As for export, you can export Full Im¬
pact spreadsheet data to other formats,
including Lotus 1-2-3 version LG/ la/
2.0, but you can export the graphics part
of a spreadsheet only via the Clipboard,
which essentially means you cannot ex¬
port to a DOS system.
Spreadsheets, in general, don't make
particularly good database managers,
and Full Impact is no exception. It's nec¬
essary to define and name a range both
for the actual data cells in the database
and for a separately constructed range of
criteria cells and to define (though not to
name) an output range to which the out¬
put records may be written. If you put the
output range too close to cells that al¬
ready contain data, the existing data wil l
be overwritten by the selected records. It
took me three tries to get the example
given in the manual to retrieve records
from a sample database correctly; the
error message kept telling me I had not
defined a range correctly but wouldn't
tell me which range.
On the other hand, you can do a few
special things with the database capabili¬
ties of Full Impact, You can, for exam¬
ple, specify more than one criterion for a
single cell, such as selecting records For
cars with a price greater than $20,000
and cars with a price less than or equal to
$17,000, Likewise, you can define your
output range as a single cell , and Ful l Im¬
pact will automatically adjust the range
to accommodate all selected records.
However, if these records extend over ad¬
jacent cells containing data, the adjacent
cells will still be overwritten. So for ac¬
tual retrieval of selected records. Full
Impact performs similarly to Excel on
files of similar size— but Excel handles
much larger files.
Getting Help
The documentation is very polished and
generally well- written and well -orga¬
nized. The on-line help is good. This,
too, has been “Mac-intized"; you get
help by transforming the mouse pointer
into a “help" pointer by pressing Com¬
mand-?, then pointing to the icon you re¬
quire help with before clicking with the
help pointer.
As with all other Ashion-Tate prod¬
ucts, a new Full Impact user is allowed
one phone call prior to registration.
Thereafter, Full Impact comes with Ash-
ton-Tate’s standard 90-day free support
package. Support after 90 days must be
paid for, at the rate of $50 for 15 calls in
a year, A monthly newsletter, “ Random
Lines,” is available at $18 per year, and
additional support is available via the
Ashton-Tate Forum on CompuServe.
Support calls are not toll-free but are
answered from 6 a.m. to 4:30 p,m,, Pa¬
cific Time. I called twice in the course of
writing this review, and after 15 minutes
of listening to Jim Croce music, I gave up
and left a message to be called back. My
call was returned within the stipulated
24 hours, and once I had a technician on
the line, I found him friendly, helpful,
and knowledgeable.
Impact on Performance
The most serious drawback to Full Im¬
pact is a defect it shares with FullWrite:
It's a memory hog. While it theoretically
requires only 1 megabyte of memory and
two floppy disk drives to run, Full Im¬
pact actually needs 2 megabytes and a
hard disk drive to run effectively. Even a
small (35 by 10) spreadsheet ran out of
continued
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REVIEW
FULL IMPACT
disk space while inserting and deleting
rows, and the Undo function failed to
work when managing larger spread¬
sheets. Consolidating linked spread¬
sheets also runs you into trouble when
you have only 1 megabyte. With more
than two or three linked spreadsheets,
consolidation slows to an unbearably
snail-like pace.
In terms of speed, Full Impact per¬
forms all right, but not spectacularly, on
small files. On a 1 -megabyte machine (I
used a Mac SE with a hard disk drive for
these tests), though, its virtual memory
management really slows things down
when working with large files. For ex¬
ample, pasting an identical formula into
every cell of a 256 by 2048 spreadsheet
could easily take all night.
Full Impact and Excel perform com¬
parably on most small-file operations
(see table 1), although Excel loads some¬
what more slowly than Full Impact.
However, Excel is noticeably faster when
handling large files once they are loaded.
I did encounter a small problem run¬
ning the benchmark tests. While trying
to run the Savage test, I had an error mes¬
sage that kept telling me “Invalid right
parenthesis” even though all parentheses
were properly paired. It turned out that I
had entered the wrong form for one of the
functions used in the formula. I used
ARCTAN, while Full Impact codes this
function as ATAN. However, the error
message didn’t tell me I had bad syntax
or a nonexistent function; it said I had an
invalid right parenthesis, which I didn’t.
In addition to the 180-page main man¬
ual, the Full Impact package contains a
plethora of little manuals and instruction
booklets, each clearly labeled. A tutorial
disk is also included. It takes about 15
minutes and is meant as orientation for a
novice spreadsheet user. It provides an
introduction to the basic concepts and
features of spreadsheet operation, plus a
quick look at some interesting features of
Full Impact, such as its ability to include
graphics and formatted text.
Full Impact is a reasonably powerful
spreadsheet package with excellent pre¬
sentation and graphics features, but it has
less file-size capacity than the compara¬
bly priced Excel, and this capacity is
limited still further by its gluttonous ap¬
petite for memory. Its ability to import
files produced by other spreadsheet and
Table 1: Benchmark results. Full
Impact performed comparably to
Excel on the standard BYTE tests.
Full Impact Excel
Savage 2:40 2:21
Byte recalc 0:17 0:15
Scroll right 0:33 0:34
Note: All times are in minutes:seconds.
database programs is limited, which
means it is not really suitable for an of¬
fice using a variety of spreadsheet pro¬
grams. My impression of Full Impact is
that it is intended for small-to-medium-
size offices in which it is the only spread¬
sheet package; given enough memory, its
features and ease of operation make it a
good choice in this situation. ■
Diana Gabaldon is the editor of Science
Software and an assistant research pro¬
fessor at the Center for Environmental
Studies at Arizona State University . She
can be reached on BIX c/o “editors. ”
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Application Review
o dBASE IV
Arrives
A major revision brings
better performance
and more features—
in a bigger package
Malcolm Rubel
After months of speculation
about the newest version of
Ashton-Tate 's flagship prod¬
uct, dBASE IV version LO is
finally here. Is the finished product
worth the wait? I think so. While the pro¬
gram is lacking in a few areas, such as its
implementation of user-defined func¬
tions (UDFs) and true Structured Query
Language (SQL) support, it represents a
quantum leap over dBASE III Plus in
functionality, power, and ease of use,
A lot of the p re publication criticism
surrounding dBASE IV was based on the
assumption that Ashton-Tate was trying
to include the unique capabilities of
every competing database package and
more. Users worried that this approach
would make the product so large as to be
unusable. Fortunately, this turned out
not to be the case. While the program is
large, it's not unwieldy to use.
In a nutshell, Ashton-Tate has signifi¬
cantly increased both dBASE's features
and the scope of the dBASE language.
And while dBASE IV isn't uniformly
faster than dBASE III Plus, performance
has been greatly improved. The new
(standard) version sells for $795 and
runs on any IBM PC or compatible with
640K bytes of memory and a hard disk
drive.
It takes time to digest dBASE IV, The
program comes on 14 disks with 1570
pages of documentation in 10 manuals.
The program is. however, easy to install;
You simply invoke the INSTALL.BAT
file and follow the directions. dBASE IV
isn’t copy -protected, but you do “brand"
your copy of the program with your
name. Unlike previous versions, dBASE
IV lets you select up to four primers,
specify 43-line mode (EGA), and change
your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC
.BAT files and other custom options.
Once you've installed the program, the
manuals, on-line help, and tutorial pro¬
vide ample assistance to get you up and
running.
The best way to examine dBASE IV is
by breaking it down into its three major
functional components: the database en¬
gine, the language, and the Control
Center.
The Engine
If you're a dBASE III Plus user, the first
difference you'll notice in dBASE IV is
its size. While dBASE III Plus ran on a
256K-byte system with two floppy disk
drives, dBASE IV needs at least 640K
bytes and a hard disk drive. Ashton Tate
has decided to go for performance, and if
you want it, you’ll have to equip your ma¬
chine to handle it.
The number of fields per record has
increased from 128 to 255, and the maxi¬
mum number of keys (indexes) per table
has gone from 7 to 47. Using DOS 3. 1 or
higher, dBASE IV supports up to 99
open files at once, although it still sup¬
ports only 10 data tables. Field length
and the maximum size of the command
line have both been raised from 254 to
1024 characters. There’s a command¬
line editor to make typing long lines eas¬
ier, And Ashton-Tate has increased the
maximum number of memory variables
from 256 to 15,000, freeing program¬
mers from one of the most irksome con¬
straints in dBASE III Plus,
Indexing is another major improve¬
ment. With dBASE III Plus, you could
have up to seven indexes (each using a
continued
Circle 161 on Reader Sendee Card
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 217
REVIEW
dBASE IV ARRIVES
Table 1: Comparative execution
speed benchmarks for dBASE III
Plus and dBASE IV. All tests were
performed on an IBM PC AT
running at 6 MHz with a Priam
28-millisecond-access-time hard
disk drive and 567K bytes of
memory. The drive was cleaned
using Norton Speed Disk before
each test. (All times in seconds.)
Test dBASE III dBASE IV
Plus
Screen 1
55
12
Screen 2
93
21
Screen 3
192
33
Append
37
25
Calc 1
188
25
Calc 2
60
5
Calc 3
145
8
Calc 4
32
23
Calc 5
975
73
Locate 1
39
42
Locate 2
25
46
Replace
76
48
Sort 1
86
79
Sort 2
46
42
Sort 3
108
101
Sort 4
84
80
Index 1
123
70
Index 2
77
43
Index 3
174
86
Index 4
52
45
Index 5
110
102
Join
516
763
Seek 1
53
22
Seek 2
62
25
Seek 3
58
28
Seek 4
44
21
Linked seek
48
48
file handle) open for a single data table.
dBASE IV lets you have up to 47 index
files open inside a master index file
(.MDX) that takes up only a single file
handle. Open indexes are no longer a
constraint on system design.
The dBASE IV engine now supports
two numeric data types: binary coded
decimal (BCD) and floating point,
which use the dBASE data types N and
F, respectively.
Memo fields used to give program¬
mers headaches. Now you can store up to
64K (previously 4K) bytes of data in a
memo field, which means that you can
actually use them to do work. You can
use string functions and the GET com¬
mand on memo fields and define a win¬
dow for editing them instead of having
the memo field automatically take over
the entire screen. Garbage collection,
once a problem, is now automatic.
dBASE III Plus allowed for only a sin¬
gle active parent-child relationship.
dBASE IV lets you relate multiple chil¬
dren to a single parent using different
keys. In many instances this allows a
substantial reduction in code size and
complexity.
Finally, execution speed is signifi¬
cantly higher because dBASE IV pre¬
parses code to save execution time (see
the comparative benchmarks in table 1).
A “compiler” translates dBASE pro¬
grams into intermediate code, checking
for syntax errors while assembling code
tokens for execution. This is not a true
compiler, however. The dBASE IV com¬
piled code comes out in .DBO files (not
.EXE files) and still needs either dBASE
IV or dBASE Run Time to execute.
You may find that your dBASE III Plus
code generates compiler errors when
first run under dBASE IV. As an inter¬
preter, dBASE III Plus simply executes
the first line of code that meets the speci¬
fied condition of an IF. . .ELSE. . .
ENDIF or a DO CASE structure. If
there’s no ENDIF or ENDCASE state¬
ment, it doesn’t matter, because the in¬
terpreter never reaches that line. This
makes a difference with dBASE IV,
however, so you’ll find out all about your
bad coding practices.
As expected, the performance bench¬
marks for dBASE IV show the greatest
speed improvements when no disk access
is required (see table 1). Surprisingly,
several of the direct data table functions
(locate and join) were slower when exe¬
cuted by dBASE IV than they were when
executed under dBASE III Plus. Fortu¬
nately, most users will seldom need these
features.
While I ran the benchmarks in the
table in 567K bytes of available memory,
I also tried to run them in the least
amount of memory possible. I managed
to get the entire set of benchmarks to run
in 477K bytes of memory, and the only
major speed penalty appeared in index¬
ing test files (seeking was not affected).
Index speeds were about a third slower.
The Language
dBASE IV has enhanced and added fea¬
tures to the dBASE language while re¬
taining compatibility with dBASE III
Plus. Some commands, however, are dif¬
ferent from those used in competing
products such as FoxBASE and Clipper.
The new menu commands in dBASE IV
are a prime example. But the changes
have definitely improved the language,
and the capability to add true context-
sensitive help to applications you’re de¬
veloping is a vast improvement over
dBASE III Plus.
Ashton-Tate swears by its statement of
100 percent upward compatibility, and,
indeed, everything I ran with dBASE IV
worked— even old report and label files.
The first time you execute your old dBASE
III Plus report forms, the program con¬
verts the binary file into dBASE code
and then compiles and executes it.
The additions and differences between
dBASE IV’s 310 commands and func¬
tions and those in dBASE III Plus are so
extensive that I can’t cover all of them in
a single article. But some of the more
interesting command sets include the
following:
• A complete set of commands for
defining, saving, and using regular
pull-down menus and Lotus-type
menus.
• A true BROWSE command that’s
under the programmer’s control.
• A full set of commands for defining,
using, and saving windows.
• Two-dimensional array commands
(arrays can include up to 1170
elements).
• An enhanced GET command that
includes the VALID clause and
conditional editing (WHEN), with
custom prompts and error
messages for each GET.
• Twenty-eight new SET commands.
• New direct date handling using the
format (mm/dd/yyj.
dBASE IV supports UDFs, which let
programmers plug in custom-designed
routines. This enhancement alone might
have made dBASE IV worth the price.
Unfortunately, there are several major
limitations to dBASE IV’s implementa¬
tion of UDFs.
First, you must declare functions
either in the current procedure file or at a
higher level in the program. The easiest
way to do this is to include a 11 your func¬
tions in the declared procedure file (SET
PROCEDURE TO) so that they’re avail¬
able globally.
Second, you can only use the CLEAR
and READ commands conditionally .
CLEAR can have no arguments, and you
can use READ only if no format file is
active. Both of these restrictions are an¬
noying, but what’s more limiting is that
you can’t use the 81 commands and 13
SET commands in a UDF. Also, you
can’t do macro expansion in a user-de-
continued
218 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
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REVIEW
dBASE IV ARRIVES
dBASE IV version 1.0
Type
Database manager
Company
AshtonTate. Inc.
20101 Hamilton Ave.
Torrance. CA 90502
(213) 329-8000
Format
Standard Edition: 14 5V4-inch floppy
disks
Developer’s Edition: 1 7 5V4-inch floppy
disks
Hardware Needed
IBM PC or compatible with 640K bytes
of memory and a hard disk drive
Software Needed
DOS 2.1 or higher; DOS 3.1 or higher
needed for extended file support
Language
C
Documentation
Standard Edition: 38-page Change
Summary, 20-page Getting Started. 85-
page Learning dBASE IV, 240-page
Using the Menu System, 134-page Using
the Applications Generator, 46-page
Introduction to the Dot Prompt, 198-page
Advanced Topics, 70-page Network
Installation, 676-page Language
Reference, 63-page Quick Reference
Price
Standard Edition: $795
Developer's Edition: $1295
Inquiry 1065.
fined function. This is crippling and will
force programmers to write many good
functions as procedures.
Finally, Ashton-Tate UDFs rigorous¬
ly enforce parameter passing. If you de¬
clare a parameter, you must pass it. By
contrast, Nantucket Corp.’s Clipper lets
you pass fewer than the declared number
of parameters. Using its PCOUNTQ (pa¬
rameter count) function, you can then
substitute default values for the unnamed
parameters. I had hoped Ashton-Tate
would add this capability in dBASE IV.
In contrast to dBASE III Plus, dBASE
IV has a debugger that’s workable. The
compiler also gives the programmer
more information about syntax errors
than did its predecessor. For me, it’s
actually a pleasure to debug programs in
dBASE IV.
dBASE IV also treats programs and
procedures differently. It treats all pro¬
grams as procedures and allows multiple
procedures in a single .PRG file. You’re
no longer restricted to procedures only in
the named procedure file. Any program
file can now contain 963 procedures or
functions (up from 32), and you can have
up to 32 open procedure files at one time.
You can also write proper modular code
and have virtually all your programs in¬
cluded in one or two procedure files. The
concern for the number of open files that
was always hanging over the dBASE III
Plus programmer’s head is gone.
Last, dBASE IV includes a program
editor that will be familiar to Framework
users. Program length is now 32,000
lines, as opposed to the previous 4000-
byte limit. The manual states that you
can replace the program editor with your
own, but the editor I use, XyWrite,
wouldn’t fit into the memory remaining
after loading dBASE.
The dBASE IV editor’s one serious
drawback is that it’s slow when working
with large files. It took 37 seconds to
load and 17 seconds to save a 2100-line
program file on my AT’s hard disk drive.
The debug cycle also can suffer from this
type of limitation.
The Control Center
What’s extraordinary about dBASE IV is
that much of its power is also available to
the nonprogrammer through its task-ori¬
ented, nonprocedural Control Center.
The Control Center is to dBASE IV what
the Assist mode is to dBASE III Plus. But
while Assist was inadequate, the Control
Center is a powerful dBASE shell with a
point-and-shoot interface that lets you
develop customized applications without
writing code.
The Control Center is a collection of
well-thought-out work surfaces that let
you define data tables, screens, reports,
and labels and tie them together through
the application generator. The work sur¬
faces are intuitive in nature, and with just
a little experience, you should be able to
design functional programs.
The report writer is a vast improve¬
ment. It looks like Concentric Data Sys¬
tems’ R&R Relational Report Writer for
dBASE. You can now create a wide vari¬
ety of customized layouts. And since
dBASE IV now fully supports a variety
of printers, you don’t have to write rou¬
tines when you want to print in anything
other than normal text. The program
supports many standard types of labels in
its label panel. dBASE IV also gives you
the opportunity to define your own label
specification.
The forms designer looks a lot like
WallSoft Systems’ UI Programmer soft¬
ware, but it isn’t as easy or as powerful to
use. The screen painter shows only 19
lines on the screen. Although you can
scroll up to create a full screen (or even
multipage screens), it would be better if
you could see the complete screen in de¬
velopment. You can add pictures, ranges,
valid statements, error messages, and
editing conditions to suit your needs.
You can also define queries in a query-
by-example panel that either uses a single
table or links two or more tables togeth¬
er. Queries can be conditional, and you
can present them either in table form or
in a user-defined screen form (.FMT).
You can create queries without writing a
single line of code, and once set, you can
carry them over to the reports and labels
sections. While it would be an overstate¬
ment to say that a first-time user could do
it with ease, new users can learn to de¬
velop sophisticated queries.
Finally, you can now record keyboard
macros for later playback, automating re¬
petitive tasks.
The most remarkable thing about
these tools is that, unlike dBASE III
Plus, which wrote binary files for report
and label specifications, dBASE IV
writes out program code. Sophisticated
users can then modify this code to suit
personal needs, and those who have the
Developer's Edition of dBASE IV can
also write customized templates.
A Step Toward SQL
Structured Query Language is currently
a hot topic, and dBASE IV supports
SQL— sort of. Actually, it emulates SQL
using dBASE data tables. You can use a
set of SQL commands inside dBASE by
typing SET SQL ON. This deactivates
the dBASE IV commands that conflict
with the SQL language.
Essentially, a series of translation
tables lets you use SQL commands to
work on dBASE tables. But it’s not SQL.
And it’s slow because of the intermediate
steps that the program must take to exe¬
cute the code. I recommend that you wait
until the Ashton-Tate/Microsoft Data¬
base Server comes out before using the
emulation.
While users still must wait for true
SQL support, Ashton-Tate has done
much to satisfy the needs of the multi¬
user system developer. dBASE IV is
transparently multiuser. File and record
locking are better thought out, and the
BEGIN TRANSACTION/ROLLBACK
command set is a godsend that will keep
developers from having to create small
continued
220 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
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editorial staff can provide.
Subscribe now and take advantage of
the special one-year charter subscription
rate of $395 ($495 outside the U.S. and
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M
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 221
Computers For
The Blind
Talking computers give
blind and visually
impaired people access
to electronic
information. The
question is how and
how much?
The answers can be
found in “The Second
Beginner's Guide to
Personal Computers for
the Blind and Visually
Impaired” published by
the National Braille
Press. This
comprehensive book
contains a Buyer's
Guide to talking
microcomputers and
large print display
processors. More
importantly it includes
reviews, written by
blind users, of software
that works with
speech.
This invaluable
resource book offers
details on training
programs in computer
applications for the
blind, and other useful
information on how to
buy and use special
equipment.
Send orders to:
National Braille Press Inc.
88 St. Stephen Street
Boston, MA 02115
(617) 266-6160
$12.95 for frrailhr or cassette, $14.95 for
print. ($3 extra for L/FS shipping)
NBP is a nonprofit braille priming and
publishing house.
REVIEW
dBASE IV ARRIVES
data tables for each transaction and then
appending them when a transaction is
finished. Automatic and immediate
screen refresh is another excellent fea¬
ture, as are the program's eight security
levels. Another good addition is support
for shared locks, which let other users
view data while you’re editing it.
For the serious dBASE programmer,
Ashton-Tate also offers a $1295 Devel¬
oper’s Edition, At $500 more than the
Standard Edition, it’s a bargain. The
package contains everything in the stan-
I fyou don ’t
have a hard disk drive
and 640K-byte
memory, you might as
well forget dBASE IV.
dard product, plus a linker that lets you
bind all procedure and program files into
a single file and do overlays for memory
management. It also includes an un¬
limited run-time license so that you can
distribute applications (single or multi¬
user) royalty-free.
The Developer’s Edition also comes
with two LAN keys so that you can set up
and use a three-station LAN with one
copy of the program. Also included is a
template language and compiler. You can
develop or modify programs to suit your
needs, compile them, and use them from
the Control Center to produce custom¬
ized programs. Finally, Ashton-Tate
says it will ship its .EXE compiler to reg¬
istered Developer's Edition users when
it's available.
dBASE’s Downside
Because dBASE IV is so powerful, you
pay a price in terms of the system re¬
sources it requires. Ashton-Tate makes
no apologies about the size of dBASE IV.
But if your machine doesn’t have a hard
disk drive and at least 640K bytes of
memory, you might as well forget about
dBASE IV. And if you absolutely have to
have terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR)
programs running, you’ll need a copy of
DESQview or Windows (I use DESQ-
view so that I can use my own editor in a
window to write and debug programs),
dBASE IV will run on a LAN, but net¬
work overhead will be cutting your mar¬
gins thin in terms of memory.
The size of dBASE IV will also influ¬
ence your programming style, Ashton¬
Tate decided to define and save windows
and menus in memory so they will pop
up quickly. But when you have seven or
eight menus defined, five or six large
windows, 600 memory variables, and a
couple of arrays defined, you don't have
much memory left. You can save win¬
dows (but not menus) to disk to save
memory, but this option requires time-
consuming disk I/O to reactivate the
windows.
You can now include up to 963 proce¬
dures in a procedure file, and you can
call down through 32 nested procedure
files. But 963 is the theoretical maxi¬
mum. Each procedure requires a proce¬
dure name and a pointer stored in mem¬
ory and takes 25 bytes of memory. The
maximum number of procedures de¬
pends on how much memory is available.
The actual limits placed on the product
mean that for most users1 systems, the
limits are much lower than the theoreti¬
cal maximums.
Worth the Wait
Is dBASE IV worth the price? The
answer is a qualified yes. If you've got
the system resources, dBASE IV is an ex¬
cellent choice, whether you're a dBASE
III Plus user or a newcomer considering
buying dBASE for the first time. Many
developers, however, probably will wait
for the release of version LI to see
whether bugs and shortcomings, such as
dBASE IV's limitations on UDFs, are
cleared up before porting all their appli¬
cations to dBASE I V.
It is likely that undiscovered bugs will
come out when 50,000 people start using
the product. Only 2 weeks before dBASE
IV was introduced, a beta user reported
that he could not compile a program file
with 1000 procedures in it, Ashton-Tate
then lowered the number of procedures
from 1 170 to 963. [Editor's note: Due to
the complexity of dBASE IV and uncon¬
firmed reports of other bugs, BYTE is
doing further testing on it ♦ Look for a Re¬
view Update on dBASE IV in an upcom¬
ing BYTE.] But the product seems solid
overall, and most users will find that
dBASE IV was well worth the wait, ■
Malcolm Rube l, president of Perfor¬
mance Dynamics Associates, a business
applications consulting firm in New York
City, is currently at work on his new
book, dBASE IV Procedures and Func¬
tions, He can be reached on BIX c/o
“editors. ”
222 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
EsamBiw
Knowledge, Experience & Expertise your most valuable resources.
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grams based on each user’s unique problems, interests and
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KnowledgePro. it's less like programming and more like
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KnowledgePro runs on IBM PC XT, AT and PS/2 compatibles
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For product literature, review reprints or to order:
Call 518-766-3000
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Am ex, M/C, Visa, COD or send check to:
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KnowledgePro'
A tool for communicating knowledge
by Bev & Bill Thompson
Join us on CompuServe (GO PCVEN user option #8)
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KnowledgePro isa Irademark of Knowledge Garden, IBM, dBASE III, Lotus 123, CompuServe and PC Paintbrush are trademarks ol their respective corporations. Photo Tcherevkott ©
Now The re A
To The Post
PostScript printers
and typesetters offer a
variety of resolutions,
paper handling options
and printer speeds, as
well as black & white
and color output
In just three years,
the PostScript
language has been
adopted by more
than 25 of the
world s leading
computer equipment
manufacturers.
Agfa Gevaert Apollo Computer
Apple Computer AST Research
More than 3,000
software programs-
for minicomputers,
mainframes, work¬
stations and personal
computers-support the
PostScript language.
Autologlc Dataproducts Dlconlx
Digital Equipment Corporation Fujitsu
General Computer Hewlett-Packard IBM
Linotype Matsushita Monotype NBI
NEC NeXT QMS Quadrcm
Qume Ricoh RMonnelley
Scilex Texas Instruments
Vtarityper Wang
THeOutSide.
To professionally
print words and
pictures on the
same page, all you need are laser printers and typesetters that speak the
right language. The language of PostScript.
As the standard page description language of electronic publishing,
PostScript software from Adobe Systems is your
rfm S5SSL key to complete device independence-giving you
and other products the freedom to select the right hardware, soft-
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software fromMobe Systems. Its your lsn>t jt tjme you put the power of PostScript
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Ate and PostSc/ipl are festered trademarks and the Adobe Scgo, the PostScript logo, and Display PostScript are trademarks of Ate Systems Incorporated.
The luges of (he origM equipment manufacturers Supporting PostScript and the Display PostScript system and the software titles Supporting PostScript are (he trademarks or
registered trademarks o! their respects companies. © 1988 Ate Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.
re Two Sides
Script Story
I
Display PostScript
is already the graphics
standard for a new
generation of computer
and workstation
displays from these
manufacturers.
Computers and workstations
with the Display PostScript
system deliver a variety of
screen resolutions in
black & white ,
grayscale and color
Taking advantage of
enhanced software portability,
applications with greater
power and potential are
already emerging to support
Display PostScript
THE In Side
Introducing Display
PostScript" from
Adobe. With the
same imaging standard and language used in PostScript printers, this
system software module is now in computer and workstation displays.
And because it’s transparently integrated over a variety of oper¬
ating systems, Display PostScript is your key to hardware compara¬
bility and software portability.
Take advantage of a powerful, new graphics standard for today-
and tomorrow. Be sure to insist on the Display PostScript system.
If you’d like more inside information
about PostScript software and/or the Display
PostScript system, call 800-2 9- ADOBE.
Systems incorporated
L
IN DEPTH
Personal
Workstations
229 Two Worlds Converge
by Nick Baran
235 The Current Crop
by Bill Nicholls
245 Worth the RISC
by Trevor Marshall and
Jane Morrill Tazelaar
251 How Fast Is Fast?
by Bill Ktndel
255 Art + 2 Years = Science
by Phillip Robinson
267 Networking with Unix
by Greg Comeau
270 The Players
As personal computers have
grown in size and capability,
they've begun to encroach
upon the workstation arena.
And as workstations have added features
that make them more accessible and
user-friendly, they’ve begun to reach
into the personal -computer arena.
As a result, we now have a new breed
of computer with the capabilities of a
workstation and the accessibility of a
personal computer— the personal work¬
station. This new breed includes high-
end personal computers and low-end
workstations that share certain mini¬
mum requirements and cost less than
$20,000. In “Two Worlds Converge,"
Nick Baran discusses these requirements
and the merger taking place between
what were once two separate and distinct
fields.
Then, Bill Nicholls looks at “The
Current Crop" of workstations, includ¬
ing the latest offerings from Apollo
Computer, Sun Microsystems, Silicon
Graphics, and NeXT. He also discusses
his own experiences trying to convert his
80386-based machine into a worksta¬
tion. In their quest for speed, worksta¬
tions will undoubtedly explore reduced-
instruction-set-computer architecture.
In “Worth the RISC," Trevor Marshall
and I discuss RISC technology and com¬
pare the various RISC chips available
today.
The speed question seems to come up
in the computer field whether you’re
tal king about chips or peripherals or just
about anything else, and it comes up here
as well , But what do all those various rat¬
ings mean? MIPS? MHz? MFLOPS? In
"How Fast Is Fast?" Bill Kindel sons out
the various speed measurements and tells
us what they do— and don’t— imply.
You can't talk about workstations
without discussing graphics, and in “Art
+ 2 Years = Science," Phillip Robinson
delves into the state of the art in worksta¬
tion graphics, from techniques to appli¬
cations to machines. You also can't talk
about workstations without discussing
Unix and networking. In "Networking
with Unix,'1 Greg Comeau combines the
two and compares Sun's Network File
System with AT&T’s Remote File
System .
Personal computers and workstations
once seemed to be two separate and dis¬
tinct fields. Their capabilities were dif¬
ferent, their uses were different, and
their prices were very different. Today,
the edges of those fields overlap, and the
personal workstation is born. And to¬
morrow? If current trends are any indica¬
tion, tomorrow will bring a continuum of
microprocessor speed and performance
from which we can only benefit.
—Jane Morrill Tazelaar
Senior Technical Editor t In Depth
226 BYTE * FEBRUARY 1989
ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT T1NNEY <g 1989
FEBRUARY 1 989 • B Y T E 227
Pack extra
power into your PC.
Make it over into a '386.
dtk's new pem-2000 dual -speed 8/20 MHz 80386 motherboard gives
you ioo% PC/AT compatibility at speeds up to 273 MHz. it also offers
some very elegant engineering, like eight expansion slots including two
for 32-bit memory expansion, two serial ports and one parallel port, a
DTK BIOS with built-in diagnostics, and the socket for an optional 80387
coprocessor
DTK means value in PC-compatible motherboards, add-on and net¬
working cards, and bare bone systems, including
FCC Class B-certified 10 and 12 MHz '286 com¬
puters. Which is why the two high-speed XT
clones named "Best Buys" in PC World's
August, 1988 issue, both use DTK
motherboards.
The PEM-2000 is a good example— but
by no means the only example— of the
DTK difference. To get the full story on
all our high-performance xi; '286 and
'386- based products, contact the DTK
office nearest you for specifications
and pricing.
And find out how to pack some
extra power into your PC.
® Where price and performance meet.
DTK COMPUTER INC.
15711 E. Valley Blvd. • City of Industry CA 91744
Tel: (818) 333-7533 ■ Fax: 1818) 333-5429
dtk Computer inc. of Florida
7245 Corporate center or, Suite B
Miami, Pi 33126
Tel- (3051477*7440
Fax: £3051 477-8322
DTK Computer inc. of New Jersey
300 Columbus Circle. Rarrtan Center
Edison, NJ 0881 B
Tel [201 ) 417-0300
Fax: 1201] 417-0307
DTK Computer inc. of Texas
10535 Wilcrest Dr, Suite 120
Houston, TX 77090
Tel <7133 568-6688
Fast (713) 568-5688
EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTORS:
Florida: TV/C 1305) 599-087)
Northern California, Superconn
[4151 770-1100
San Oiego, Nimax
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DTK Computer GmbH
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west Germany
Tel. £0211) 656031
Fax: (0211)653753
at and XT are registered trademarks of international Business Machines corporation DTK is a registered trademark of Daiatecn Enterprises Co., Ltd.
228 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989 Circle 79 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS: SO, )
IN DEPTH
PERSONAL WORKSTATIONS
T wo Worlds
Converge
As workstations become more friendly and PCs grow
in capability and capacity, the personal workstation is born
Nick Baran
Perhaps the one con¬
stant in the com¬
puter industry is
that the price/per¬
formance ratio keeps going
down. Each year, you get
greater performance and ca¬
pabilities for your money.
Consider that, in 1982, an
808 8 -based IBM PC with 64K
bytes of memory, two floppy
disk drives, and a mono¬
chrome display cost close to
$5000. Today, you can buy an
80386 machine with 2 mega¬
bytes of memory, a hard disk
drive, and a high-resolution
graphics monitor for about the
same price. This trend in
price/performance gradually
has brought low-end worksta¬
tions into the same ballpark
as high-end personal com¬
puters (PCs)— hence the term
"personal workstations.1'
In this article, I'll discuss
the basic characteristics of a
workstation, who uses them, and how.
I'll also look at how and where personal
workstations fit in with high-end work¬
stations and PCs.
First, a Little History
Workstations actually predate PCs. The
direct descendants of 32-bit minicomput¬
ers, they first arrived on the computing
scene in the late 1970s, The first work¬
stations were simply high-resolution
graphics terminals connected to multi¬
user minicomputer systems running me¬
chanical and structural design software
used by engineers and mechanical de¬
signers. A typical “graphics worksta¬
tion" cost several thousand dollars and
ran on minicomputers costing several
hundred thousand dollars, such as the
VAX- 1 1/780 from Digital Equipment
Corp. (DEC) or the Prime
750 from Prime Computer.
These early workstations
typically featured 1000- by
800-pixel 19-inch mono¬
chrome monitors, a keyboard,
and an input device, such as a
mouse or a digitizing tablet.
They were used for CADD
and for modeling mechanical
systems and components.
But these early worksta¬
tions had a major problem.
Because they ran on a host
minicomputer, which might
have as many as 30 or 40 users
simultaneously sharing re¬
sources, they were often pain¬
fully slow. Engineers would
have to wait for hours for their
applications to run because
they were contending for re¬
sources with other engineers,
as well as other departments
such as accounting and word
processing. Another problem
with these minicomputer-
based workstations was that they were
confined to proprietary operating sys¬
tems, which limited the availability of
third-party software applications and re¬
stricted the portability of applications.
The obvious solution to the mini¬
computer bottleneck was to give graphics
workstations their own CPUs, making
them independent from the general-
continued
ILLUSTRATION; ROBERT TlNNEY £ ] 989
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 229
IN DEPTH
TWO WORLDS CONVERGE
purpose minicomputer system. One way
around the proprietary-operating-system
problem was to offer stand-alone work¬
stations running Unix, a multitasking
operating system in the public domain.
But minicomputer systems also of¬
fered one major advantage. You could
share files and applications* because all
the workstations were connected to the
minicomputer, The answer to this on
stand-alone workstations was to provide
a local-area network (LAN) that allowed
workstation users to share files and pe¬
ripherals,
Apollo Computer was the pioneering
manufacturer of stand-alone work¬
stations, Founded in 1980T Apollo's first
offering was the Motorola 68000-based
Domain DN100, which had a price tag of
close to $60*000 for a fully configured
system, A couple of years later, Sun
Microsystems entered the workstation
market with a competitive Unix worksta¬
tion called the Sun 100, which was also
based on the 68000, The Sun 100 had a
10-MHz 68000 processor* a 1000- by
800- pixel monochrome graphics display,
and a six-slot MultiBus card cage. The
rated integer performance of the Sun 100
was 0,5 million instructions per second
(MIPS), The Sun 100 with 256K bytes of
memory, Unix* and Ethernet cost about
$13,000, But a fully configured system
with 2 megabytes of memory and an 80-
megabyte hard disk drive cost over
$30,000, From the start* Sun Micro¬
systems and Apollo have been fierce
competitors in the workstation market.
Certainly* competition continues to con¬
tribute to the favorable price versus per¬
formance trend.
Historically* workstations have been
one step ahead of PCs. While PCs
started off as 8-bit machines, work¬
stations started off on 16-bit processors.
They were the first stand-alone machines
to be networked* and they offered more
advanced graphics capabilities. While
early PCs either didn't have graphics at
all or had only 640- by 200-pixel black-
and-white graphics* workstations came
with 1000- by 800-pixel resolution or
better. Because workstations were based
on Unix* they offered multitasking and
large memory management capabilities
well before those features were available
on m ic ro com pu tcrs .
Another important difference in the
evolution of conventional workstations
and PCs was the software. While the
first PC software consisted of games,
simple file management programs, and
text editors, workstation software mi¬
grated from the professional-level appli¬
cations available in the minicomputer en¬
vironment, Structural analysis* CAD*
graphics design, database management*
and page layout provided the core appli¬
cations on workstations. Not only was
this software considerably more sophisti¬
cated than the early applications on PCs,
it was a lot more expensive. Software
packages usually cost several thousand
dollars on a workstation* and they often
cost that much today.
But the PC offered something that
workstations couldn't match; ease of use
and affordability. While workstation
users faced the arduous task of learning
Unix, PCs offered easier accessibility.
Although MS-DOS was no picnic, it cer¬
tainly seemed that way when compared
with Unix, Then the Macintosh desktop
began the revolution that forced worksta¬
tion manufacturers to come up with bet¬
ter graphical interfaces. The NeXT
graphical interface may be the first truly
easy-to-use Unix-based graphical inter¬
face.
The development of good spreadsheet*
database* and word processing programs
on the PC began to build a bridge be¬
tween the PC and the workstation. For a
few hundred dollars* you could get soft¬
ware on the PC that was functionally su¬
perior to the equivalent workstation soft¬
ware costing hundreds or thousands of
dollars more. You couldn't gel Lotus 1-2-
3 or Microsoft Word on a workstation* so
workstation users started demanding
MS-DOS compatibility. This was the be¬
ginning of the bridge from the work¬
station end, Today, many workstations
offer some method to run MS-DOS as a
task in the Unix environment (SoftPC
from Insignia Solutions and Merge 386
from Locus Computing are examples of
products that let you run DOS in the Unix
environment).
Workstations Today
The workstations of 1989 are a far cry
from the Domain DN100 or the Sun 100
(see “The Current Crop" by Bill Ni-
choils on page 235), A low-end worksta¬
tion or a high-end PC — the overlap is
fairly complete and the distinction
blurred— can now be referred to as a
“personal workstation." Today, the per¬
sonal workstation features a 32-bit pro¬
cessor* at least 4 megabytes of memory,
1024- by 800 -pixel screen resolution or
better* 4 or 8 bit planes of color, at least
70 megabytes of hard disk storage, and
Ethernet and Unix capabilities. It also
normally includes a floating-point co¬
processor.
Workstations are available in three
main bus architectures— VME, Multi-
Bus* and the IBM PC AT bus. Apollo
Computer's personal workstations* for
example* use the AT bus, while the high¬
er-end machines use VME or MultiBus.
Sun Microsystems primarily uses the
VME bus but offers the AT bus in its 3861
product line. And the NeXT Computer
has a Nu Bus -compatible backplane.
A three-dimensional image displayed on the new Personal Iris from Silicon
Graphics. The Personal Iris features an R2QQQ RISC processor from MIPS Computer
and a 1 280 - by J 024-pixel color monitor.
230 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
IN DEPTH
TWO WORLDS CONVERGE
A typical base system, as configured
above, costs around $12,000, However,
costs increase dramatically when you
add additional graphics capabilities, such
as a graphics accelerator board and addi¬
tional mass storage. A system costing
$12,000 will rapidly climb to $30,000 if
you add a graphics coprocessor and a
larger hard disk drive. The photo at left
show's the graphics capability provided
on the new Persona] Iris workstation
from Silicon Graphics. While an entry-
level diskless version of the Personal Iris
costs about $16,000, a system with a
170-megabyte hard disk drive and z-buff-
ering (hidden-line removal in hardware)
costs over $30,000 (see Phillip Robin¬
son's article "Art + 2 Years = Science”
on page 255), NeXT’s personal worksta¬
tion may have a significant impact on
these ballpark workstation costs.
While the initial workstation offerings
were based on the Motorola 68000. to¬
day’s workstations often use the Motor¬
ola 68020 and 68030, as do many PCs,
Apollo still offers only Motorola-based
machines. Sun Microsystems and Prime
Computer also offer machines using the
Intel 80386, as do many PC companies,
Some workstation companies offer ma¬
chines using reduced-instruction-set-
computer (RISC) architecture, and
some, notably Sun Microsystems, offer a
similar architecture called scalable-
processor architecture (SPARC). IBM,
Hewlett-Packard, and Silicon Graphics
also offer RISC -based workstations.
But because these workstations all run
Unix, the type of processor is not that im¬
portant to the end user. What is impor¬
tant is the performance of the machine
and the available software. Integer per¬
formance of today’s workstations ranges
from about 1,5 MIPS for personal work¬
stations to about 10 MIPS for top-of-the-
line systems that cost from $50,000 to
$100,000 (Silicon Graphics has lowered
the price/performance ratio even more,
claiming a performance of 10 MIPS on
its Personal Iris). RISC -based systems
generally provide higher performance
than the complex-instruction -set -com¬
puter (CISC) machines. (For more infor¬
mation on RISC and the various RISC
chips, see "Worth the RISC" by Trevor
Marshall and Jane Morrill Tazelaar on
page 245,) For example. Sun Microsys¬
tems claims that the high-end systems in
its product line with SPARC processors
provide a 7- to 10-Mi PS integer perfor¬
mance. Sun’s 68020 line of machines of¬
fers performance ratings from 1.5 to 4
MIPS, and its 80386-based 386i ma¬
chines range from 3 to 5 MIPS.
An equally important measure of per¬
formance is millions of floating-point
operations per second, or MFLOPS.
Floating-point performance depends on
the type of floating-point processor used
in the system. Lower-priced machines
with Intel 80387 or MC6888 1 floating¬
point processors have a floating-point
performance of about D.2 MFLOPS. Ma¬
chines with floating-point accelerators
have performance ratings ranging from
0.6 to 2 MFLOPS.
However, floating-point accelerators
w,
large, high-resolution
graphics monitors, it is
possible to have
multiple windows with
multiple sessions
operating
concurrently.
raise the cost of the system by as much as
SI 0,000 to SI 5. 000, Even more expen¬
sive floating-point accelerators can pro¬
vide performance of up to 12 MFLOPS,
For example. Sun Microsystems offers
an accelerator called the TAAC-! that
claims 25 MIPS and 12,5 MFLOPS per¬
formance for $30,000. (For further dis¬
cussion of performance metrics, see
"How Fast Is Fast?” by Bill Kindel on
page 251.)
W h o Use s Wor k s t a t i on s , a nd How 7
The main users of workstations are still
engineers, scientists, architects, and me¬
chanical designers. However, work¬
stations have also become attractive for
people who work in the fields of anima¬
tion, graphics design, and desktop pub¬
lishing.
A major user community for worksta¬
tions is the university. The figure on
page 232 shows a network of worksta¬
tions (and also some minicomputers and
mainframes) at the University of Cali¬
fornia at Santa Cruz (UCSC), This sys¬
tem is typical of the workstation environ¬
ments at many universities. Note that the
planetary names on the diagram are the
address names of the systems on the net¬
work. The polygons surrounding systems
on the diagram (e.g.. Sol/Daizu) repre¬
sent groups of diskless workstations and
their file servers.
The UCSC system exempl i fies some of
the features of workstations that distin¬
guish them from PCs. Workstations are
almost always networked, Ethernet and
Sun Microsystems’ Network File System
have become the networking standard for
many workstations, while others use
AT&T’s Remote File System, (For a dis¬
cussion of the relative merits of NFS and
RFS. see "Networking with Unix” by
Greg Comeau on page 267). Networks
allow' the use of diskless workstations
that can access files from a file server.
As UCSC’s software manager A1 Conrad
told me, the idea is to "put computer
power on people's desks and the storage
in a centralized room.” Conrad points
out that it is cheaper and more efficient to
have a 1 -gigabyte hard disk drive that
everyone can use than it is to have 10
100-megabyte hard disk drives carrying
duplicate applications.
Another feature of the UCSC system is
that it runs Unix. Machines on the net¬
work run everything from 4.3 Mach
Unix to System V,2 to Xenix, As tongas
you’re in character mode, applications
are quite portable between the various
Unix versions, according to Conrad,
However, incompatibilities exist be¬
tween the various Unix window manag¬
ers and interfaces, such as NeWS. XI 1,
and proprietary window' managers like
Suntool or the Macintosh environment.
All these windowing systems run on the
UCSC network. The Macintoshes are
linked to the system via Kinetics’ inter¬
face between AppleTalk and TCP/IP
Two important requirements for per¬
sonal workstations are that they have at
least 4 megabytes of memory and that
they can use high-resolution graphics
monitors displaying close to 1 million
pixels on the screen {megapixel displays).
There are several reasons for these two
requirements. Perhaps the most impor¬
tant of these is multitasking, one of the
main attractions of Unix. In conjunction
with large s high-resolution graphics
monitors, you can have multiple windows
with multiple sessions operating concur¬
rently. But you need a lot of memory to
run multiple sessions simultaneously—
the more the better,
A multitasking windowing environ¬
ment greatly improves productivity.
Programmers can work on multiple sub¬
routines or program modules simul¬
taneously. Writers can view and work on
multiple documents at the same time.
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 231
IN DEPTH
TWO WORLDS CONVERGE
And users can access multiple nodes on
the network simultaneously, each win-
dow corresponding to a different session
with a different network node.
High-resolution graphics are an essen¬
tial component of workstations. Most
have 1 -megapixel (approximately), 19-
inch monitors, which provide not only
excellent windowing capabilities but also
the resolution necessary for CAD and
graphics design. High- resolution graph¬
ics capabilities also are available on PCs,
of course; the standard for PCs is still
around 640 by 480 pixels, while the stan¬
dard for workstations is 1 million pixels.
Color is just starting to become standard
on workstations— until recently, most
workstation graphics monitors were
monochrome or gray -scale.
Workstations require a lot of memory
because of the types of applications they
run. Consider the requirements for the
computations performed in finite-
demem-analysis problems, for example.
Finite-element analysis and other engi¬
neering software require the solution of
simultaneous equations. A small finite-
element model with only 200 degrees of
freedom (the number of variables defin¬
ing the displacement of the model) re¬
quires solving a 200 by 200 array of si¬
multaneous equations. A fully populated
200 by 200 array contains 40,000 coeffi¬
cients. Because these types of problems
require a high degree of accuracy, the
coefficients are represented in double¬
precision, requiring 8 bytes per coeffi¬
cient, So, this small problem requires 8
bytes multiplied by 40,000, or 320,000
bytes of memory. Many finite-element
problems involve two or three thousand
degrees of freedom. If you wanted to
solve a 1000 by 1000 array of simulta¬
neous equations, you would need 8 mil¬
lion bytes of memory in addition to the
memory required for the applications
software and the operating system.
Most finite-element programs do not
require that the entire array fit into the
main memory of the computer. They get
around the memory limitations by swap-
The Ethernet network at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC). Note that the planetary* names represent addresses
on the networks Groups of machines enclosed by polygons represent diskless nodes and their file servers * (Figure courtesy of the
Computer and Information Sciences department, UCSC, )
232 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
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IN DEPTH
TWO WORLDS CONVERGE
ping parts of the array to and from disk.
However, the more memory you have,
the faster you can solve large arrays. Sev¬
eral finite-element programs run on IBM
PCs with 640K bytes of memory. How¬
ever, solving large problems can take all
night on a machine that size. Worksta¬
tions offer two major advantages for fi¬
nite-element analysis; multitasking and
much larger memory capacity. Both ca¬
pabilities are also available on personal
workstations. Even if you're running a
long, time-consuming problem on a
workstation, you can run it as a back¬
ground task and continue working in
other sessions on the computer.
Large mass-storage capability is an¬
other important requirement of personal
workstations. Applications that need a
lot of memory usually require a fair
amount of disk space. Again, finite-ele¬
ment analysis is a good example. A large
finite-element problem of several thou¬
sand degrees of freedom can easily take
up 20 megabytes of disk space. In addi¬
tion. operating systems and applications
continue to grow rather than shrink. For
example, Apple's A/UX is shipped on an
80-megabyte hard disk, of which 70
megabytes are taken up by the system
software. And the NeXT Computer is
shipped with a 250-megabyte optical
drive that is already two-thirds full.
However, mass storage isn't an abso¬
lute requirement for workstations. You
can have diskless workstations accessing
a file server, which provides the hard
disk drives and the tape backup. The
disk less-node-and- file-server model
makes an awful lot of sense in a network
of workstations. This type of system is
more efficient, and it also eliminates the
storage of redundant data. In addition to
hard disk storage, a workstation environ¬
ment usually includes tape backup. In a
network of diskless workstations, the
tape backup system is part of the file
server.
Workstations vs, PCs
Until OS/2 becomes widely used, multi¬
tasking will remain fairly limited on
PCs. Without shared memory and inter¬
process communications, the multitask¬
ing that you can do with, say, DESQview
is quite limited in comparison to the flex¬
ibility of Unix multitasking environ¬
ments. DESQview is restricted to 640K
bytes of main memory and a 12SK-byte
window into expanded memory, which
limits the performance and the size of
multitasking applications. It could also
be argued that the cooperative multitask¬
ing environment of the Macintosh Multi-
Finder is not as robust or well developed
as the preemptive multitasking model
used in Unix (see Phil Goldman's article
entitled “MultiFinder Revealed” in the
Macintosh Special Edition , August 1988
BYTE).
If you take a look at the components of
the typical workstation, it is dear that
they include both the low-end worksta¬
tion, like the NeXT machine and the
Sun386i, and the high-end PC, like the
IBM PS/2 Model 80 or the Macintosh II.
These machines have 32-bit processors
ML
storage isn ’t an
absolute requirement
for workstations.
Diskless workstations
can access a file server
with hard disk and
tape backup.
and floating-point coprocessors and can
support at least 4 megabytes of memory.
You can buy them with big hard disk
drives, Ethernet, a version of Unix (San-
ta Cruz Operations’ Xenix, AIX from
IBM, or A/UX from Apple), high-reso¬
lution graphics, and so on. For example,
UCSC uses Rose Hill Systems AT-386s
equipped with 24 bit-frame buffers for
instruction in graphics. As you can see in
the figure, these machines are linked
into the network just like any other work¬
station.
So what, exactly, is the difference be¬
tween workstations and PCs? The dis¬
tinction is largely cultural, PCs evolved
primarily in the business and home mar¬
kets, while workstations evolved in the
engineering and mechanical-design mar¬
kets and in the research environment of
academia. MS-DOS and the Macintosh
Finder were not designed for use in engi¬
neering; they were designed for business
and home users. Unix, on the other hand,
has traditionally been an operating sys¬
tem for academic and scientific comput¬
ing. It was designed to support multitask¬
ing and multiple sessions, and worksta¬
tions were built from the ground up to
run Unix.
A Melding Pot
As wre approach the 1990s, the distinc¬
tion between workstation and PC is be¬
coming less and less obvious, The NeXT
Computer is an excellent example of the
fading distinction. It is in every respect a
workstation (with the exception of its
lack of color capability). And, as Steve
Jobs put it, the NeXT Computer “raises
the lowest common denominator” for
computing.
Soon, the only way we’ll be able to tell
the difference between traditional work¬
stations and PCs wrill be by the operating
system they run. Workstations will con¬
tinue to run Unix and use Ethernet w ith
NFS or RFS. PCs will run OS/2 or a
Macintosh operating system. They will
use Microsoft and 3Com*s LAN Man¬
ager, Banyan Systems’ VINES, Novell's
NetWare, or AppleTalk, And personal
workstations? At least some of them will
be able to “switch hit.”
Multitasking, networks, and high-res¬
olution graphics are gradually becoming
requirements in the business world.
Business users want large, high-resolu¬
tion displays with multiple windows.
They want networked systems with ac¬
cess to large file servers. And they want
multitasking to perform multiple tasks
simultaneously. So, although PCs and
workstations come from different back¬
grounds and serve different users, they
are rapidly converging.
Without a doubt, the price/perfor¬
mance ratio for computing power will
continue to drop. With a “university
price” of S650G for an 8-megabyte ma¬
chine with a 1 -megapixel display, 250
megabytes of mass storage, and Ethernet
built in, the NeXT Computer will almost
certainly force other companies to deliv¬
er less expensive and more capable ma¬
chines (for a detailed look at NeXT’s ma¬
chine, see “The NeXT Computer” by
Tom Thompson and Nick Baran, Novem¬
ber 1988 BYTE). Sun Microsystems, for
example, is expected to announce some
new lower-cost personal workstation en¬
tries in 1989, and we can expect compet¬
itive Unix-based personal workstations
from traditional microcomputer manu¬
facturers like Apple and IBM. ■
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
/ would like to thank At Conrad of the
Computer and Information Sciences de¬
partment at UCSC for his help in prepar¬
ing this article .
Nick Baran holds a BSME from Stanford
University and is a BYTE senior technical
editor based in San Francisco. He can he
reached on BIX as "tdckbaratr ”
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 233
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• Eve rex Enhanced Auto Switch EGA Card 640 x 480
• Intel 80286 CPU
• Multi-speed 6/8/10/1 2 MHz
• Keytronics 1 01 Enhanced Keyboard
• 640k Memory Expandable to 1 Meg
• 200 Watt Power Supply
• Seagate Model ST251 42+ Meg Hard Disk Drive
• 57*" 1.2 Meg Floppy Drive
• Western Digital 2 Hard Disk and 2 Floppy Controller with Cables
• Serial/Parallel & Game Port
• 80287 Math Co-Processor Slot
• Complete Operations Manual
• One Year Warranty
With EGA Multisync (Analog) 800 x 560 . . . $2045
With Monochrome + 40 Meg (ST-251) . . . . $1495
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Same System as Above with the Following Differences:
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• 1 Meg Memory Expandable to 8 Meg on the Motherboard
With EGA Multisync (Analog) 800 x 560 . $2445
With Monochrome + 40 Meg (ST-251 ) . , . , . $1895
DOS 3.3 — $79
DOS 4.0 — $109
42+ Meg 20 MHz 386
EGA Color System $2995
• Samsung 14" EGA Color Monitor
• 20 MHz 0 Wait State Computer
■ Everex Enhanced Auto Switch EGA Card 640 x 480
• AT Case with Key Lock, Turbo, Rower and Hard Drive LEDs
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• Intel 386-20 CPU (not a 386H6)
• Keytronics 1 01 Enhanced Keyboard
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• 220 Watt Power Supply
• Seagate Model ST251 42+ Meg Hard Disk Drive
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• Western Digital 2 Hard Disk and 2 Floppy Controller with Cables
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234 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 262 on Render Service Cord
IN DEPTH
PERSONAL WORKSTATIONS
The Current Crop
Buying a workstation has its benefits— but building your own
on a PC base is also a valid option
Bill Nieholls
workstation is the
Ferrari of the per¬
sonal computer
world. Most of us
have seen one and occasion¬
ally watched one in use , but i n
general, we know little about
them beyond the mystique
they carry. Unlike the Fer¬
rari, however, the price of
workstations is coming down
due to improvements in semi*
conductor technology. Also
unlike the Ferrari, many of us
are likely to get better ac¬
quainted with workstations in
the near future.
What is a workstation? Is
there really a difference be¬
tween a workstation and a
personal computer? What can
you find for under 520.000?
When I went looking for
answers to these questions, I
was in for some surprises.
Despite the history and adver¬
tising for workstations, the
differences between low-end worksta¬
tions and high-end personal computers
no longer outweigh the similarities. In
fact, their capabilities have become so
similar as to blur the distinction between
the two. They can, effectively, be
grouped together as “personal work¬
stations.”
1 found three major areas of differenti¬
ation between personal computers and
workstations: design, networking, and
graphics. The design issue is the most
central. Workstations are designed as in¬
tegrated products, tools with which to
perform useful work. They avoid the
“fill-in-the-blanks” approach to system
configuration that the personal computer
arena has carried to extremes. Worksta¬
tion designs also recognize that work is
rarely done in isolation and so provide
a level of networking that
would make the most ardent
local-area network admirer
jealous. Finally, workstation
design responds to the need
for people to interact and con¬
trol the system, and it accom¬
plishes that through an intu¬
itive graphical interface.
In the recent past, it would
not have been possible to buy
all those features separately.
Today, with attention to de¬
tail, you can come quite close
to the workstation-design phi¬
losophy. Current 80386-sys¬
tem designs from Compaq
and Advanced Logic Re¬
search (ALR) address the
memory-performance issue,
Ethernet and Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP) are avail¬
able as the base network, and
high-performance graphics
are available from many com¬
panies like Matrox, Renais¬
sance, and Number Nine,
Building a Workstation
I’m actually in the process of building
my own workstation, although it’s not
what I started out to do (see the text box
“From PC to Workstation” on page
236). My original objective was to up¬
grade the AT clone I was using to an
continued
ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT TJNNEY © 1989
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 235
IN DEPTH
THE CURRENT CROP
From PC to Workstation
Seven years ago, I bought my first
microcomputer, ii was a Radio
Shack Model 3 with only 16K bytes of
memory and no disk drives, but I did use
it. Three weeks later, I upgraded it to
the maximum of 48K bytes of memory.
Three years later, I bought a Sanyo 555:
128K bytes of memory and two single¬
sided disk drives. This rapidly became
a 256K-byte system with 360K-byte
drives, almost IBM PC -compatible.
These early machines were distinctly
underpowered, and the mass storage
and display arrangements were primi¬
tive, but with patience and persistence, 1
could do my work.
With my next machine, an 8-MHz
XT clone, I began the transition to ma¬
chines that worked for me, rather than
the reverse. Upgrades followed rapidly
over the next years to my current ALR
386/220, a 20-MHz 80386 system with
3 megabytes of memory, running Unix
System V 3 .0. Except for a large graph¬
ics display, a network, and a few design
refinements, this system has the attri¬
butes of a workstation. I didn't start out
intending to build a workstation but
simply progressed toward systems with
better support for my work.
The relevance of this history is that
while the functions 1 perform are mostly
unchanged— writing, programming,
keeping track of things, doing calcula¬
tions— the style of my work has evolved.
Rather than wait for the system* it waits
For me, and it improves my ability to re¬
spond by enabling quick task switching
and multitasking when needed. I have
traded machine cycles (and cost) for my
time and come out ahead in productiv¬
ity. With some further investment in
graphics and network hardware, I would
have a complete workstation.
80386 and migrate to Unix, connecting a
few terminals. I chose an ALR 386/220,
a 20-MHz system with two- wait-state
memory for reliability and cost/perfor¬
mance. The Unix System V 3.0 software
(from Bell Technologies) requires 2.5
megabytes of memory to install, but only
2 megabytes to run, I already have a large
disk drive (160 megabytes) and a fast
controller. The basic system with 3
megabytes of memory was easy to put to¬
gether— but not inexpensive.
Currently, I'm using an EGA/CGA
display combination. My original plan
was to install a VGA display, but experi¬
ence with workstations has made me re¬
consider, and ITm looking at the larger
graphics displays with a large mono¬
chrome monitor (color is too expensive),
supported by the new X Windows stan¬
dard, The ability to work with multiple
windows on a high-resolution screen is a
major productivity tool. These display
systems are available from 640 by 480
pixels by 8 bit planes up to 2000 by 2000
pixels by 8 bit planes in color or mono¬
chrome.
The final piece of the workstation en¬
vironment is the network. This choice is
easier, as the standards are Ethernet and
TCP/IP, The only caution here is to ver¬
ify that the software and hardware are
compatible with your machine. If I were
to link with another Unix system with a
hard disk drive, I would add RFS, the Re¬
mote File System software, which allows
me to access the other files as though
they were local, subject to the permission
of the other system.
Some other choices are modified by
building a workstation. One is the tape
backup system. Unix does not (yet) sup¬
port tape systems driven from the floppy
disk drive controller, so I am about to re¬
place my inexpensive DC-2000 system
with one that is supported, with either
60-megabyte or 125-megabyte tape car¬
tridges. Both use the larger DC-600A
tape cartridge. Memory choice is sim¬
ple— as much as you can afford. Unix
systems will run with as little as 2 mega¬
bytes but really begin to hum at 4 mega¬
bytes. For multitasking or graphics, 8
megabytes would be nice.
The effect of too little memory is a
large increase in paging and swapping to
the hard disk, and a noticeable reduction
in performance* Unix is disk-intensive,
and the faster the disk, the better Unix
performs. In retrospect, the extra cost of
an enhanced-small-device-interface disk
with its higher transfer rate would have
been a good investment.
Buying a Workstation
Unlike the personal computer's “do-it-
yourself' approach, a workstation as
such comes with all the essential hard¬
ware and software you need to make it
function. Only customization and verti¬
cal applications are left for you to add.
Some applications may require network
support rather than include a separate
disk, but that reflects on the way a group,
rather than an individual, works. All the
basic workstation systems have similar
components.
Buying a standard workstation has its
benefits, because the platform starts
with a larger minimal configuration.
This simplifies the software require¬
ments by reducing the number of vari¬
ables and eliminating configurations that
restrict workstation performance. It also
offers certain economies of scale by pro¬
viding as standard certain equipment
that would otherwise require extra room
to add later. In particular, workstations
all start with a reasonable (for today) 4
megabytes of main memory; in a per¬
sonal computer, this requires substantial
expansion. Network interface and graph¬
ics displays also benefit from being
standard.
Another workstation design goal was
to create a group working environment
that is smooth, seamless, and fast. This
was implemented with an integral net¬
work, a noticeable difference from the
original personal computer as a stand¬
alone system. The standard Ethernet and
TCP/IP have now become easily avail¬
able for personal computers, reducing
that gap.
One issue, that of operating systems,
remains* While the personal computer
has evolved with MS-DOS and is slowly
adopting OS/2, workstations have always
used a multitasking operating system*
When Apollo began, it provided Aegis,
but subsequent workstation development
has made Unix a standard. Working be¬
tween Unix and OS/2 is still awkward*
However, the high-end personal com¬
puters have now grown into machines
quite capable of running Unix, and in
fact such systems exist (e.g*, Apple's
A/UX and IBM's AIX),
A Personal Workstation
Most vendors' lines of workstations start
at the low end with the same general level
of hardware and software that the high-
end personal computers have. The hard¬
ware for these “personal workstations"
now includes a fast 32-bit microproces¬
sor, 4 to 8 megabytes of memory, a 15- to
19-inch graphics display, a fast network
(typically Ethernet), and a large hard
disk drive, either attached or on the net¬
work (see table 1).
Software may be a proprietary operat¬
ing system but is more likely to be Unix
with graphics and network extensions
(see table 2)* The difference between a
workstation and a personal computer
continued
236 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
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Other Clearpoint
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MACINTOSH
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SUN
SNXSM (compatible with Sun 3/60),
Available in 1 MB SIMMs, four in a set.
SNXSC (compatible with Sun 4/1 10 and
386i): 1 MB SIMMs.
DEC
DCME-M20 (compatible with the Micro-
VAX 2000): 8 and 16 MB boards.
Manufactured to Clearpoint's
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Corporation. Macintosh anti Mac arc trademarks of Apple
Compute! , Inc. DEC and MicwVAX 2000 ate trademarks of
Pt£L|;il Equipment Corporation. Sun is a trademark of Sun
Microsystems Inc- DN 300Gh DN 3500. and Apollo arc
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Coil or write for a
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Clearpoint Research Corporation, 99 South Street, Hopkinton, MA 01748
1 -800-CLE ARPT (1-800-253-2778) or 508-435-2000
Table 1: A representative sample of workstations below $20,000 listed in ascending-price order. 1 Notice the location
of my “ build- your-own ” workstation project using the ALR 386/220.
System
Processor
and clockspeed
MIPS
FPU
and clock speed
Memory
(megabytes)
Display
size (pixels)
Disk capacity
(megabytes)
Price
Apollo DN3000
68020-16
1.5
68881-16
2-8
1024x800
0-696
$4990
Sun-3/50
68020-15
1.5
68881-15
4
1152x900
71-1300
$4995
NeXT
68030-25
4
68882-25
8-16
1120x832
256-926
$6500
ALR 386/2202
80386-20
3.5
80387-20
1-10
640x480
67-320
$7695
Sun386i/150
80386-20
3.5
80387-20
4-16
1024x768
91-981
$7990
Sun-3/60
68020-20
3
68881-20
4-24
1152x900
71-1300
$8900
Apollo DN3500
68030-25
4
68882-25
8-32
1024x800
0-696
$8990
Sun386i/250
80386-25
5+
80387-25
4-16
1024x768
91-981
$11,990
SGI Personal Iris
R2000A-12
10
Optional
8-16
1280x10243
155-2000
$16,000
Sun-4/110
SPARC-14
7
1164/1165
8-32
1152x900
141-1300
$18,900
Apollo DN4500
68030-33
7
68882-33
8-32
1280x1024
155-696
$18,990
1 Unless otherwise noted, all workstations are configured as follows: RAM is 4 megabytes of fast 32-bit memory; all monitors are monochrome; floating-point chips are included; graphics
processors are not included; Ethernet with TCP/IP is the standard network interface; and standard software is Unix with a full set of Unix tools.
2 The ALR 386/220 has an optional 80387 chip and an optional VGA controller/multiscan display plus 2 megabytes of memory expansion included in the price.
3 The SGI Personal Iris has a color monitor with 8 bit planes and a graphics processor included.
Table 2: The software environments for the workstations in table 1.
Apollo
Sun
SGI
NeXT
Operating system
Aegis or
UnixSV or
Unix BSD
SunOS (Unix)
and MS-DOS
IRIX (Unix)
Mach (Unix)
Network software
Domain/OS
NFS
NFS
TCP/IP
Graphics software
PHIGS
SunCGI
SunGKS
SGI Graphics Library
PHIGS2
None at press time
Development tools
(in addition to
standard Unix tools)
Open Dialogue User Interface
Management System2;
Domain Software Engineering
Environment2;
Domain/OS Debugger
For 386i.
SunView;
XII /NeWS Merge;
Help Viewer
Developer's Option
Package: Graphics Library,
EDGE (graphical
debugger),
Pixie (profiler)
Objective-C
Interface Builder;
DSP Library Functions;
PostScript Window Server
Bundled
applications
(in addition to
standard Unix
applications)
None
Sun Organizer
desktop file
manager
QuickPaint;
QuickModeler;
IRIS Workspace;
IRIS Graphics Library
Runtime;
WriteNow
Find
Webster’s dictionary
and thesaurus;
Shakespeare’s
4Sight Windowing complete works;
System The Oxford Dictionary
of Quotations,
Ma thematica;
Personal Text Database;
Application, Sound,
and Music Kits
Third-party Spring 1 988 Summary of Catalyst catalog lists Silicon Graphics None at press time
applications Applications Catalog lists over 1 200 products from Geometry Partners
925 software and hardware more than 500 vendors lists 75 products
products in 26 application in 1 6 categories
areas
1 The ALR machine comes with Setup and some MS-DOS utilities. Since no other software is bundled, the operating system and applications must be bought separately.
2 Optional.
238 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
IN DEPTH
THE CURRENT CROP
based on the same chip lies in the soft¬
ware and in some design choices for
higher performance within the system
hardware.
The situation changes as you go up the
workstation line. Midrange workstations
use reduced-instruction-set-computer
(RISC) chips at 7- to 10-MIPS (million
instructions per second) performance;
optional graphics processors are avail¬
able, as well as large memory and disk
drive sizes. High-end workstations in¬
clude graphics processors and offer
multiple processors for a top-end perfor¬
mance of 80 to 100 MIPS.
Apollo
Apollo Computer, formed in 1980, was
the first of the workstation vendors. At
that time, the concept of a workstation
was new, and what Apollo did was to es¬
sentially invent the workstation market.
Keys to that invention were a new operat¬
ing system, Aegis, a networking scheme
called Domain, and a token-ring network
to support the Domain system.
Although those early workstations
were less powerful than some current
personal computers, the true attributes
of a workstation showed— an integrated
network, shared resources, and a graphi¬
cal interface. Apollo identified the work¬
station market as a workgroup, using
shared resources and data sharing as key
concepts, with the objective of delivering
mainframe power and workgroup cohe¬
siveness.
Apollo systems have grown from the
original 0.2-MIPS Domain DN100 in
1980, based on the 68000, to the newest
RISC-based DN4500, which is rated at 7
MIPS. During that same time, worksta¬
tion prices came down from $60,000 for
the 0.2-MIPS DN100 to about $5000 for
an entry-level DN3000 at 1 .5 MIPS. The
high end of the Apollo line grew just as
quickly— today, the top-end Apollo
DN10000 ranges from $60,000 to
$200,000 and from 36 to over 100 MIPS.
The entry-level DN3000 is no longer a
personal-computer killer. The Mac II (2
to 3 MIPS) and 80386 (3 to 6 MIPS) ma¬
chines have topped the DN3000’s 1.5
MIPS on a performance basis, and they
are now available with other workstation
attributes, such as large graphics dis¬
plays, hard disk drives, and network con¬
nection. While personal computers have
advanced, so has Apollo by introducing
the4-MIPS DN3500(see photo 1), based
on a 25-MHz 68030/68882, and the 7-
MIPS DN4500, based on the 33-MHz
68030/68882 combination.
The DN4500 uses a 64K-byte cache,
interleaved memory, and zero-wait-state
operation for maximum performance.
For up to a 300 percent floating-point
performance increase, a floating-point
accelerator using the Weitek 3164 chip is
available for the Series 3500, 4000, and
4500. Both 3500 and 4500 systems also
can add a high-performance color graph¬
ics option with a dedicated graphics pro¬
cessor. This processor optimizes two-
dimensional primitive operations on a
1280- by 1024-pixel by 8 bit-plane color
display.
Apollo continues to advance its soft¬
ware and now offers the ability to net¬
work with a combination of Aegis and
one of two variants of Unix: System V R3
or Berkeley Unix 4.3. Apollo can also
bridge the gap to MS-DOS by running
MS-DOS applications in an Apollo win¬
dow. The Apollo Domain Network Com¬
puting System (NCS) carries the file¬
sharing concept a step farther. NCS
allows users and programs to request un-
continued
ALR1
MS-DOS
Unix
OS/2
TCP/IP
(with Unix)
None
None
None
Any available for
standard Unix,
OS/2, or MS-DOS
MAIL PREFERENCE SERVICE
In today’s fast-paced society, shop¬
ping by mail or phone has become a
popular, time-saving way to purchase
many products and services. Most
people enjoy receiving catalogs and
other direct advertising, informing
them of what’s available through
the mail.
You can obtain a free booklet called
“Shopping at Home: A Consumer
Guide” by sending your name and
address to the Consumer Services
Department of the Direct Marketing
Association. The booklet provides
tire necessary information to make
informed purchase decisions.
However, some people are not inter¬
ested in receiving advertising mail
and the Direct Marketing Associa¬
tion’s Mail Preference Service (MPS)
offers a free name removal service to
consumers. Many companies par¬
ticipate because it’s good business to
send their message to people inter¬
ested in dieir product. Recently, it
has been enhanced to include non¬
profit organizations. You can specify
which lists you would prefer to be
removed from — commercial and/
or non-profit.
So, if you wish to have your name
deleted from many national adver¬
tising mailing lists, send us die coupon
below and we’ll let the participating
mailers know. After several months,
MPS should gready reduce the
amount of national advertising mail
you receive. However, many local
businesses and community organ¬
izations are not participants and will
continue to send direct mail. In these
cases, your name can be removed
from dieir mailing list by writing di-
recdy to the mailer.
Nanu*
Street Apt.
City
State ZIP
Variations of my name
MAIL PREFERENCE SERVICE
Direct Marketing Association
6 East 43rd Street
P.O. Box 3861 Grand Central Station
New York, NY 10163
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 239
IN DEPTH
THE CURRENT CROP
Photo 2; The SunSS6ifJ50, a 3 5 -MIPS workstation for $ 7990 L
used CPU resources from anywhere in
the network to perform parts of a task for
one workstation. NCS is intended as an
open system with source licenses avail¬
able, and it runs on the major network
protocols.
Apollo continues to hold its software
edge but has also become one of the
founders of the Open Software Founda¬
tion (OSF). Seven major computer manu¬
facturers formed this foundation to offer
a standard software environment based
on X/Open and POSIX specifications.
POSIX is an IEEE operating-system
standard that is closely related to Unix.
OSF is a nonprofit, industry-sup¬
ported R&D organization. Its objective is
to provide a standard operating environ¬
ment for applications that will make it
easier for users to mix and match com¬
puters and applications from different
vendors. OSF will address the portability
of software, the interoperability of hard¬
ware, and scalability, the ability to use
the same environment and software on
anything from personal computers to
supercomputers. The specifications will
be public, and OSF will license its soft¬
ware internationally.
Sun
Sun Microsystems, formed in 1982, was
the second vendor to specialize in work¬
station products. Recognizing a gap be¬
tween personal computers and minicom¬
puters, it took a different approach from
Apollo. Sun chose to build “open sys¬
tems11 on existing or emerging stan¬
dards, or in some cases, to originate new
implementations and propose their adop¬
tion and licensing to anyone who wanted
them. Sun's objective was to integrate
current technology and provide better
price/performance without locking the
customer into a proprietary environment.
Building on the Unix and Ethernet
standards, Sun added a high-resolution
graphical interface and implemented the
Network File System (NFS) as the glue
that held together different systems on
the same network. Sun describes its envi¬
ronment by saying “the network is the
computer'1 and has software that ties to¬
gether heterogeneous systems.
Since September 1985, Sun has intro¬
duced a series of new systems; the 3/160
at 2 MIPS, and the 3/50 and the 3/260 in
1986 at L5 and 4 MIPS, respectively. In
July 1987, Sun introduced the 3/60 at 3
MIPS and its first RISC -based system,
the 10-MIPS 4/260. As of late fall 1988,
Sun has added the 4/1 10 and 4/150 RISC
machines at 7 MIPS, and the 386i/150
(see photo 2) and 386i/250 at 3.5 and 5
continued
240 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
Buy with
Confidence
In an effort to make your
telephone purchasing a more
successful and pleasurable
activity. The Microcomputer
Marketing Council of the
Direct Marketing Association,
Inc. offers this advice, "A
knowledgeab]e buyer will be a
successful buyer." These are
specific facts you should know
about the prospective seller
before placing an order:
Ask These Important
Questions
• How long has the company
been in business ?
• Does the company offer
technical assistance ?
• Is there a service facility ?
• Are manufacturers warran¬
ties handled through the
company?
• Does the seller have formal
return and refund policies ?
• Is there an additional charge
for use of credit cards?
•Are credit card charges held
until time of shipment?
• What are shipping costs for
items ordered?
© Direct Marketing Association, Inc. 1988
Reputable computer dealers
will answer all these questions
to your satisfaction. Don't
settle for less when buying your
computer hardware, software,
peripherals and supplies.
Purchasing Guidelines
• State as completely and ac¬
curately as you can what
merchandise you want in¬
cluding brand name , model
number ; catalog number.
• Establish that the item is in
stock and confirm shipping
date.
• Confirm that the price is as
advertised .
This message is brought to you
by:
the MICROCOMPUTER
MARKETING COUNCIL
of the Direct Marketing
Association, Inc.
6 E. 43rd St.,
New York, NY 10017
MMC
MICROCOMPUTER
MARKETING COUNCIL
of the Direct Marketing Association, Inc.
• Obtain an order number
and identification of the
sales representative.
Make a record of your
order, noting exact price in¬
cluding shipping, date of
order, promised shipping
date and order number.
If you ever have a problem,
remember to deal first with the
seller. If you cannot resolve the
problem, write to MAIL
ORDER ACTION LINE, c/o
DMA, 6 E. 43rd St., New York,
NY 10017.
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 241
IN DEPTH
THE CURRENT CROP
MIPS, respectively, as the first worksta¬
tions based on the Intel 80386 chip.
Currently, the Sun line ranges from
1.5 to 10 MIPS across three processor
architectures— the original Motorola
68020, the SPARC chip, and the Intel
80386. This is a direct result of Sun's
philosophy of taking the best current
technology and packaging it in a cost-
effective manner. Prices range from
$4995 for the base 3/50 to $39,900 for
the 4/260,
In addition to the basic workstation,
Sun also offers four graphics accelera¬
tors and one floating-point accelerator,
the TAAC-1. The TAAC-1 offers 25-
MIPS and 12.5-MFLOPS (million float¬
ing-point operations per second) com¬
puting capability with its own C compiler
and libraries for $30,000. The graphics
accelerators can handle from 65,000 to
200,000 two-dimensional vectors per
second, double-buffering, and z-axis
buffering. All this extra performance
comes at a price, however, ranging from
$32,900 to $59,400. These particular
additions aren’t likely to be on every¬
body’s desk.
Sun's software is guided by the Open
Systems Network philosophy. Sun offers
a wide range of networking in the Open
Network Computing environment. More
than 120 licensees have adopted the Re¬
mote Procedure Cali and External Data
Representation for network services. The
ONC environment includes NFS, which
allows network-wide file access; the Yel¬
low Pages, which provides a directory of
services; and Remote Execution, which
offers the ability to run applications on
other workstations.
Sun also supports access to the net¬
work by IBM PCs and compatible sys-
terns through PC-NFS, allowing full
personal computer sharing with Unix,
VMS, and other operating systems. The
non-Intel workstations can execute MS-
DOS applications using a coprocessor
board that can be shared across the net¬
work. Windowing systems that merge
Nework station and X Windows 1 1 from
MIT now make windows a network re¬
source like files under NFS. The proto¬
cols are in the public domain, and Sun li¬
censes the source code.
Sun also provides graphics indepen¬
dence through PHIGS, the Program¬
mer's Hierarchical Interactive Graphics
System. PHIGS runs on Sun-2, -3, and -4
workstations and is supported by the
graphics accelerators.
The company is taking a different ap¬
proach to operating systems, however.
Instead of having three operating-system
offerings, Sun is integrating AT&T’s
System V issue 2 with the Berkeley Stan¬
dard Distribution (BSD) and incorporat¬
ing the facilities of both into its new
SunOS 4.0. Sun and AT&T are working
together to define a new integrated oper¬
ating system that combines the best of
both with the intent to establish that oper¬
ating system as a new standard. This ac¬
tion, in part, led Apollo and others to
form OSF, as they were concerned about
their lack of input as well as the effect of
possible delays in getting access to the
new operating system.
Silicon Graphics
Silicon Graphics, Inc., formed in 1984,
has its own approach to the workstation
market. SGI is totally committed to
three-dimensional graphics in real time
and has delivered expensive ($50,000
and up) workstations for three-dimen¬
sional work. SGI uses the best current
technology and concentrates on adding
its expertise at the graphical interface. In
the fall of 1988, SGI announced a “low-
cost” (under $20,000) three-dimension¬
al workstation, the Personal Iris (see
photo 3). SGFs products range upward to
the 4D/240, which has four parallel pro¬
cessors, each operating at 20 MIPS and 4
MFLOPS. Amazingly, the high-end unit
remains under $100,000.
The Personal Iris is a dynamic three-
dimensional graphics workstation de¬
signed for personal use. The product em¬
phasis from SGI is “three-dimensional
graphics in color.” As a result, all prod¬
ucts from SGI include color graphics
with a graphics processor as standard.
When you compare the prices of other
workstations with equivalent capabili¬
ties, the apparent high cost of the Per¬
sonal Iris becomes the lowest-cost sys¬
tem for the capabilities provided.
The standard Personal Iris 4D/2Q
comes with a color graphics board of
1280- by 1024-pixel resolution with 8
color bit planes and 4 administration
planes standard, expandable to 24 color
bit planes, 8 administration planes, and a
24-bit z-buffer. The expanded model
uses 56 bits per pixel, which contributes
to the video RAM shortage. The graph¬
ics processor can render 4500 to 15,000
polygons per second and produce plain,
antialiased, or depth-cued three-dimen¬
sional vectors.
The standard processor is no slouch,
either. The CPU is a 12.5-MHz MIPS
Computer R2000A RISC microproces¬
sor with separate data and instruction
caches and is rated at 10 MIPS integer
performance. The optional floating¬
point processor provides 0.9 MFLOPS.
Standard memory is 8 megabytes, ex¬
pandable to 16 megabytes. Ethernet and
TCP/IP are standard, as are two serial
ports, a Centronics port, a small-com-
puter-system-mterface port, audio ports,
and a VME slot. Note that a disk drive is
not included in the base machine. The
entire package will fit under your desk.
Operating-system software called
IRIX is based on the Unix System V R3
242 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
J N DEPTH
THE CURRENT CROP
version with 4.3 BSD features and en¬
hancements for real-time graphics* It is
compatible at the binary-code level
across the entire 4D workstation line.
Standard software includes the SGI envi¬
ronment manager, graphics library, win¬
dowing system (Nework station, GL win¬
dows, and X Windows), and diagnostic
software. Optional software includes
five communications options and 10 pro¬
ductivity software packages for the pro¬
grammer, including PC-DOS emulation
andPHIGS.
Real applications show three-dimen¬
sional motion on realistic wire-frame or
shaded models. Even a complex fighter
model with thousands of line segments
moves smoothly with shading, color, and
variable illumination. This performance
results from separating the physical com¬
puting in the main processor from graph¬
ical computations, which are done in the
graphics processor. You can move and
rotate the displayed image without re¬
quiring the main processor to do any
computing.
The graphics system is, in fact, four
processor subsystems dedicated to graph¬
ics functions. The four independent sub¬
systems are the host interface (to a 40-
megabyte-per-second graphics bus), a
geometry engine, a raster subsystem, and
a display subsystem. The geometry en¬
gine is a microcoded processor capable
of 20 MFLOPS. It performs rotation,
scaling, and transformation, and sepa¬
rately transforms surface normals. Then
it clips vertex coordinates to a 6-plane
bounding box and does the first stage of
scan conversion. This information is
passed to the raster engine, which is al¬
most as complex, and from there to the
display controller. There is actually
more processor power in the graphics
processor than there is in most basic
workstations.
This system doesn’t have just windows
and pop-up menus— the menus open in
smooth three-dimensional motion. Push
a three-dimensional button, and it rotates
and expands, exposing a new set of but¬
tons at each level until you execute an ap¬
plication. There is, of course, a version
of Flight Simulator that must be experi¬
enced to be appreciated. Motion is
smooth, and the landscape is not just a
bunch of lines.
NeXT
Next, and last in this case, is the new en¬
try from NeXT. This is the long-awaited
workstation for the education market
from Steve Jobs. The NeXT workstation,
sometimes called the cube, breaks
ground in areas ranging from packaging
to optical storage. What has excited
much interest is the price/performance,
$6500 for a 25-MHz 68030 and 68882
combination with a high-speed digital -
signal processor thrown in for good mea¬
sure (see photo 4).
There are a number of significant de¬
velopments here in addition to the price.
First, the packaging reaches new levels
of compactness, being a 1-foot cube with
four slots, and the whole computer fits in
only one slot. Second, it has a standard
optical disk; it’s not just a WORM (write
once, read many times) drive but has full
read and write capability, with good per¬
formance specifications for an optical
disk.
Rounding out the hardware is 8 mega¬
bytes of memory, 12-channel direct
memory access, and a 17-inch mono¬
chrome display with integral stereo, mi¬
crophone, and mouse and keyboard con¬
nections. All in all, it's the simplest
physical arrangement of hardware for its
power*
Software technology was not left be¬
hind, either, Unix serves as the operat¬
ing system, based on the Mach kernel de¬
veloped at Carnegie- Mel Ion University.
Mach is based on Unix BSD 4.3 but has
enhancements in the areas of shared
memory, interprocess communications,
and potential multiprocessing. Network¬
ing is supported by the standard Ethernet
and TCP/IP, with NFS from Sun Micro¬
systems.
NeXT has added a graphical window¬
ing interface called Workspace Manager
to hide the raw' Unix prompt. Windows
and menus float in the workspace of the
screen, and icons become transparent
when they overlay other icons, which
keeps everything visible. The windowing
mechanism is based on Display Post¬
Script.
Development also has its share of new
tools* The NeXT system includes an ob¬
ject-oriented preprocessor called Objec-
tive-C for the ANSI C compiler. Objec-
tive-C supports objects as groups of C
procedures, and several libraries of
ready-to-use objects, called kits, are pro¬
vided. Kits are included for music and
sound as wel l as for more prosaic objects.
Also provided is something called Inter¬
face Builder, which supports the inter¬
active design of user interfaces*
Several applications are bundled with
the cube, including a word processor, a
mail interface with voice-mail attach¬
ments, a searching program called Find,
and the usual programmer tools. Beyond
these are a group of educational tools*
including a Webster’s dictionary and the¬
saurus, Mathematica, The Oxford Dic¬
tionary of Quotations , and the complete
works of Shakespeare. (Full details on
the NeXT cube can be found in “The
NeXT Computer” in the November 1988
BYTE.)
How does the cube stack up against the
other workstations? On basic system
specifications, it is more than a match for
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 - B Y T E 243
IN DEPTH
THE CURRENT CROP
Companies
Mentioned
Apollo Computer. Inc.
330 Billerica R<1
Chelmsford, MA 01 824
(508) 256-6600
Inquiry 983.
NeXT, Inc.
3475 Deer Creek Rd ,
Palo Alto, CA 94304
(415) 424-0200
Inquiry 984,
S i 1 icon G raph ics , I nc .
201 1 North Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA 94039
(415) 960-1980
Inquiry 985.
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
2550 Garcia Ave,
Mountain View, CA 94043
(415) 960-1330
Inquiry 986,
the typical workstation. But there are a
couple of areas that may dampen the en¬
thusiasm of those who want to do real
work. First, there is the issue of distribu¬
tion: It is currently available only to uni¬
versities. Second, production and soft¬
ware won't he “ramped up" until the
second quarter of this year. Third, no
applications outside the bundled ones
exist, although that should change within
the next year. Fourth, current systems
don't have a color display.
Where will the NeXT cube succeed?
This innovative workstation is among the
first of a new breed of “personal work¬
stations" that will filter down into uni¬
versities small businesses, and, eventu¬
ally, homes. It’s clear by Jobs's example
that current technology can give us a lot
more than the personal computer deliv¬
ers today. It's safe to say that the cube
represents a 10-year advance in technol¬
ogy over the IBM PC and should come
into its own in the 1990s, But, in my
opinion, this year is not NeXT's year.
At Least Today, It’s Possible
How does a standard workstation com¬
pare with one built on a personal com¬
puter? A few years ago, the answer
would have been easy— there was no
comparison. Today, the answer is more
difficult, as the differences are blurred
by technological and software advances.
A few years hence, the question will no
longer be asked. We will simply have a
continuum of microprocessor-based com¬
puters.
Today, depending on where you start
and how much you spend, you can turn
your personal computer into a worksta¬
tion, At some point, expanding a system
to its upper I i m its is actua l ly more expen¬
sive than buying one that's built for the
task, but you can do it. Adding software
on an incremental basis is also usually
more expensive than getting it bundled,
but again, you can do it. If you have the
option and the funds, buying a worksta¬
tion has its benefits. But building your
own on a personal computer base is also a
valid option. At least today, it’s pos¬
sible. ■
Bill Nicholh has a B. S. in physics from
Noire Dame University and is the owner
of BGW Systems (Pityall up . Wash i ngton) ,
He can be reached on BIX as “hi l hi, *'
t »
A
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244 BYTE ■ FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 204 on Reader Service Card
IN DEPTH
PERSONAL WORKSTATIONS
Worth the RISC
RISC technology is here, it’s usable,
and it ’5 low-cost now
Trevor Marshall and Jane Morrill Tazelaar
If there are to be any
major improvements in
work s tat ion te ch nolog y
in I989s they're likely
to come from the reduced-
tn struct ion -set -computer
arena, RISC chips will im¬
pact every area: embedded
control, graphics, and mathe¬
matical calculations. Which
areas they'll end up dominat¬
ing really depends on how
quickly the com pie x- instruc¬
tion-set-computer designers
react to innovative RISC ar¬
chitectures and incorporate
those features that really
work well into upcoming
CISC chips.
What Is RISC?
RISC refers to the concept of
a CPU that executes at least
one instruction per clock
cycle. With a CISC CPU like
the 68020, it can take several
clock cycles to execute an in¬
struction. The RISC chips, however, ex¬
ecute most of their instructions in one
cycle and make further performance
gains with a technique called pipelining,
which uses multiple execution units. The
chip actually executes many instructions
at the same time.
Some RISC chips, such as the Motor¬
ola 88100 and the Advanced Micro De¬
vices (AMD) 29000, execute as many as
five instructions at once, depending on
the nature of the instructions. This
allows the accesses to the I/O devices,
the RAM, main memory, the disk, and
the operator to be scheduled so that the
CPU’s execution unit can continue doing
something useful even when the bus in¬
terface is performing external accesses.
Although the advanced CISC CPUs also
use a form of pipelining, their complex
instruction set makes it more
difficult for them to achieve
the same performance
advantage.
Executing at least one in¬
struction per dock cycle is the
single thing that most charac¬
terizes the RISC chips. In¬
deed, it’s one of the things
that sets the Intel 80960 apart
from the others: Not all of its
instructions are one- word in¬
structions, and thus they
don't all execute in one cycle.
There are some other charac¬
teristics that define RISC as
well. But before discussing
them, it will be helpful to
look at the chips themselves.
The RISC Chips
The Clipper, developed by
Fairchild, is probably the
most mature RISC chip. Fair-
child was bought by National
Semiconductor, which sold
the Clipper Division to Inter¬
graph, a workstation manufacturer. Most
designers don’t regard the Clipper as an
available family, but in fact you can buy
Clipper chip sets from Intergraph,
Then there's Motorola: The 88000 is a
three-chip set that consists of the 88100
CPU and two or more cache/memory
management units, 88200s. The 88100
has built-in floating-point capabilities.
continued
ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT TINNEY © 1989
FEBRUARY 1989 ' BYTE 245
IN DEPTH
WORTH THE RISC
Next comes AMD's CPU, the 29000;
its associated floating-point chip is the
29027, Cache units are expected but are
not yet part of the equation, so at this
point the AMD chip set consists of the
29000 and the 29027 and is targeted at
low-cost RISC applications.
MIPS Computer Systems offers the
R3000 CPU and the R3010 floating¬
point accelerator. The MIPS family is
best characterized by its (relatively) ma¬
ture software base and close ties with a
246 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
cache-memory architecture. Indeed, it's
very hard to connect the R300G to any
memory system that docs not use cach¬
ing. This family of chips is thus re¬
stricted to more complex (and expensive)
workstation applications.
In the Sun Microsystems' SPARC
(scalable processor architecture) family,
the first chip came from Fujitsu. Sun is
currently shipping this CPU chip in the
Sun 4 workstations, using the Weitek
floating-point chip set to augment its
Circle 22 7 on Reader Service Card
arithmetic capabilities. The SPARC fam¬
ily is now becoming better known, and
promising products have come on-line in
1988. Cypress Semiconductor has a
SPARC implementation called the 7C600
family, which consists of the 7C60T
CPU integer unit, the 7C603 memory
management unit, the 7C608 floating¬
point controller, the 74ACT8847 float¬
ing-point unit (FPU) (actually made by
Texas Instruments), and the 7C181
cache-tag RAM. Cypress is the second
source that Sun licensed after Fujitsu had
implemented the first member of the
SPARC family. At this time, most of the
Cypress SPARC chips are only just start¬
ing to become available.
The actual SPARC family, all those
who have licensed the technology, in¬
cludes TI, Cypress, BIT (Bipolar Inte¬
grated Technology), Fujitsu, and LSI
Logic. Chips are actually on the shelf
from Fujitsu and Cypress, and TI has its
FPU out.
SPARC is probably the most difficult
to comprehend of the whole lot. It's the
only RISC chip currently being shipped
by more than one manufacturer (al¬
though MIPS has now announced multi¬
ple sources for its parts). After the
80386, whose price was driven very high
because you could only get it from Intel,
people became wary of sole-source
CPUs, When Sun brought out its SPARC
chip in 1987, the company made it
known that there would be multiple
sources for the chip.
The multiple-source availability ques¬
tion really isn’t much of a problem with
RISC ch ips because there are so many of
them and they are competitively priced.
In fact, prices are already very inexpen¬
sive. There are 17 MIPS RISC machines
currently available, and their cost, at
least in large quantities, is around $10
per MIPS, That's a lot cheaper than an
80386,
IBM also has a RISC chip, but at this
point it doesn’t have the level of perfor¬
mance that the others are starting to
show. In addition, it's not being mar¬
keted, at least not aggressively, as a chip
set— it comes only in the IBM RT sys¬
tem— so we have little information about
it to pass on to you.
The Intel 80960 chip's instructions
are not fixed-length, but they are put on
32-bit boundaries. Such things as its op¬
tional displacements make the 80960
somewhat different from a typical RISC
chip. It is a great chip for embedded con¬
trol, which is what it's designed to do,
but it doesn't yet have the level of perfor¬
mance that the other RISC chips have.
Intel and AMD are both pushing their
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IN DEPTH
WORTH THE RISC
Table 1: The RISC chips. The VAX MIPS estimate is usually derived by
dividing the Dhrystone rating by 2000. As you can see, some manufacturers
are conservative in their MIPS estimates while others are overly optimistic.
(These numbers are from the manufacturers and are not the result of
independent testing. Where MIPS numbers were not available, they have been
calculated.)
VAX
MIPS
Cache Archi-
support tecture
Number of
registers
Approximate
Dhrystones/second
Motorola 88000
20
Yes
Harvard
32
46,000 at 25 MHz
MIPS R3000
20
Yes
von Neumann
32
42,300
AMD 29000
17
No
Harvard
192
42,000
Cypress SPARC
20
Yes
von Neumann
128
42,000 at 33 MHz
Intergraph Clipper
17
Yes
von Neumann
40
35,000
Sun (Fujitsu) SPARC
9.5
Yes
von Neumann
128
19,100 at 16 MHz
Intel 80960
7.5-10
No
von Neumann
32
13,000
chips at the lower-cost end of the market.
They are each trying to say, “With my
chip, you can design a system that is as
fast as a workstation but at a fraction of
the price.” By and large they’re correct,
and they’re keeping prices down by using
innovative memory technologies.
Banking on Registers
Another characteristic of RISC CPUs is a
lot of registers and very fast access to the
register bank. Keeping the signals run¬
ning around on the same silicon chip is
much faster than going off the chip to
main memory, disk, or the keyboard.
This helps to enhance speed.
With chips like the Motorola 88000,
AMD 29000, and MIPS R3000, you can
both read and write to the register set in
one cycle, so its memory is extremely
fast. And since you have a large register
set, you can do a lot of calculations with¬
out having to go out to main memory.
SPARC implementations typically have
128 registers; the AMD 29000 has 192.
The Clipper has 40—32 integer 32-bit
registers and 8 64-bit floating-point reg¬
isters. The Motorola 88100 CPU has
only 32 registers, but 32 is still a reason¬
able number. The MIPS architecture has
32 registers. The Intel set has a pseudo¬
register, not true registers, but it’s also
32 words deep.
The larger the register bank, the more
calculations you can force to run in the
high-speed internal registers— but you
incur a penalty when you do multitask¬
ing. For instance, if you have a single
task that uses 128 registers, and you
switch to the next task (which also needs
all the registers), you have to save them
all to memory. Then, when you switch
back to the first task, you have to restore
them all. Thus the more registers the
chip has, the higher the overhead it in¬
curs when it needs to save and restore
them.
AMD, Motorola, SPARC, and MIPS
all have special features in their archi¬
tectures to allow you to store and read
back registers as fast as is practical. For
instance, if you’re storing to 128 sequen¬
tial locations, you can do it much faster
than if you stored individual registers one
at a time. Both SPARC and AMD provide
hardware support for doing multiple
stores; a protocol defined in the wires
that connect up to the RAM interface, to
the real world, allows these high-speed
bursts of register saving and restoring op¬
erations. But it’s still an overhead you
must take into account. That’s the penal¬
ty for using a lot of registers, but the per¬
formance improvement tends to make up
for it.
This penalty doesn’t come into play
with CISC chips, which typically have
only a few registers. For example, typi¬
cal compilers used with a 68020-based
machine use a maximum of 8 general-
purpose registers and 4 floating-point
registers— the rest are scratch registers.
In current CISC technology, you don’t
gain much speed by using registers, so
most compilers don't overuse them.
Compilers for RISC chips, however,
use lots of registers to get the best perfor¬
mance, the highest number of Dhry-
stones per second, and so on. For in¬
stance, the MetaWare compiler for the
AMD 29000 uses all 192 registers. And
it has routines called spill and fill-
spill when the registers overflow to
send them out to RAM and fill when
they underflow to pull them back in.
This huge register stack acts as a win¬
dow into RAM. Using it is a very effi¬
cient way of writing compilers, and most
RISC compilers use it. The Sun com¬
piler, however, has something different:
a register-windowing scheme. It tends to
have the same effect; it’s just a different
way of describing things. With the regis¬
ter-window concept, you must define a
fixed number of variables that you will
pass between procedures. For instance,
if you only need to pass three registers
between procedures and you switch your
level of register windowing, you’re going
to waste five of the eight defined regis¬
ters. None of the other chips has this win¬
dowing scheme. The inefficiency it
causes seems to be relatively minor,
probably only the last 10 percent of dif¬
ference in speed.
Cache in the Chips
A computer system today is designed
with a CPU and a large (slow) main
memory; in the middle, between the two,
is cache memory. Cache is a high-speed
memory that buffers between the high
speed of the CPU and the low speed of
main memory. All the conventional
workstations use cache memory.
With RISC machines, cache perfor¬
mance becomes critical. You can have a
CPU that’s running three, four, or five
times faster than a CISC chip, but you
still have the same-speed memory, the
same DRAMs. Therefore, the function
of the cache is to buffer. How you make
the operation of the CPU more efficient
with the slower main memory becomes
of paramount importance.
There are ways of designing unique
memory systems that are structured dif¬
ferently from the conventional CPU,
cache, and memory setup. You can con¬
nect the CPU directly to specially con¬
figured main memory. While you won’t
achieve quite the same level of perfor¬
mance that you would with a cache,
you’re talking about only a 10 percent to
20 percent difference (see the article
“Real-World RISCs” in the May 1988
BYTE). Yet your cost difference will be
significant. The cache is becoming one
of the most expensive items on a work¬
station, be it CISC or RISC.
Both the Sun 4 and the MIPS machine
have fairly good caches, typically 128K
bytes of cache RAM each. That’s high¬
speed static RAM, and it tends to be
much more expensive than several mega¬
bytes of DRAM.
The MIPS people stress close integra¬
tion with the cache. In fact, their whole
system is designed around it. Basically,
they will sell you an agreement whereby
they tell you how to design the cache.
They give you all the details, down to
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 247
IN DEPTH
WORTH THE RISC
which chip you connect to which chip.
They probably have the most advanced
system of any RISC cache to date. The
MIPS chip is very closely integrated with
its high-performance cache design.
The Sun 4 uses an expansion of the
Sun 3 cache technology. Motorola has
cache memory management units
(MMUs), the 88200s, which are very ex¬
pensive (several times the cost of the
CPU) but allow you to connect low-
speed memory and still get tolerable per¬
formance. Each MMU contains 16K
bytes of high-speed cache memory. They
let designers look at the RISC CPU as a
“black box” and not have to worry about
high-speed memory designs.
For example, if you’re designing a sys¬
tem around the AMD 29000, you have to
look at all the timing diagrams. You have
to understand what’s happening in the in¬
ternal pipelines. You have to know when
the system’s going to be asking for an¬
other instruction and when it’s going to
be accessing data. Once you understand
these things, you can mold the memory
to what the CPU does.
With Motorola’s three-chip set, the
cache memory buffers all that. All you
really have to understand is how to con¬
nect to a cache memory. You don’t have
to be concerned about what the CPU is
doing. The cache memory handles that
interface for you, so the “black box” ap¬
proach is an easier level of design. The
Clipper also allows you to design at this
level.
Motorola and Intergraph both sell inte¬
grated cache chips, which have the RAM
as well as the control circuitry inside;
they’re all you need to implement a
cache. It’s not as good as the MIPS
cache— and it’s certainly not as large—
but it’s low-cost and convenient.
Both Intel and AMD have concen¬
trated on designing interfaces for their
chips so you can couple them to low-cost
memory, producing a low-cost, high-
performance system. To give you some
idea of the performance levels you can
get, it’s possible on low-cost $3000 to
$4000 hardware to achieve 30,000
Dhrystones per second. Intel isn’t even
talking about cache. AMD is working on
a cache unit— but it’s very effective when
connected directly to RAM. And Fujitsu
uses the Sun cache technology.
Cypress has designed its family
around a cached-memory architecture.
The company provides two cache-sup-
port chips to simplify high-speed cache
design, both the RAM itself and the spe¬
cial cache-tag RAM. You get schematics
on how to connect them into a system.
Cypress is also emphasizing the cache
and has made no attempt yet to allow its
SPARC chip to be effectively connected
directly to main memory.
Comparing the Chips
The first major comparison point for
these chips is whether they stress cache
or noncache technologies (see table 1).
Any of them can be used in either mode,
but with varying degrees of difficulty.
AMD and Intel are pushing noncache
systems; all the other manufacturers are
pushing cache systems. That’s the first
distinction, cache or noncache.
The next distinction is whether the
chips have Harvard or von Neumann ar¬
chitecture. A von Neumann architecture
has one external 32-bit bus that is used
for both data and instructions. A Har¬
vard architecture has two separate 32-bit
buses, one for bringing in the instruc¬
tions and one for the data. A Harvard ar¬
chitecture allows you to bring data and
instructions to the chip at the same time.
Of the RISC chips, the Motorola 88000
and the AMD 29000 use the external
Harvard architecture.
So the capability is there, in theory at
least, to double your memory-interface
speed. It doesn’t work that way, how¬
ever; you probably multiply it only by
one and a half. Nevertheless, the Har¬
vard architecture significantly raises the
interface speed without significantly
changing the interface cost. This archi¬
tecture allows you to customize the type
of memory you connect, since it has to
work well only with data references or
with instruction references, not both.
One similarity shared by the families
is that they’re all vying for the same mar¬
ketplace, and when all is said and done,
the CPU chips are similar in price. In es¬
sence, the choice of a CPU won’t, by it¬
self, affect the final cost of a workstation
very much, because RAM is now becom¬
ing the biggest part of the cost. A work¬
station today will have 8 megabytes or
more of RAM, and all the CPU chips are
relatively inexpensive when compared to
the cost of 8 megabytes of RAM. Thus,
the choice of a CPU is usually not based
on raw chip cost anymore. Some work¬
stations still have expensive FPUs, but
since they’re all competing for the same
piece of the pie, that too must change.
One way to compare RISC chips is to
look at which ones have been around the
longest and which are just emerging. For
example, the Clipper is the most mature
while the Motorola 88000 doesn’t really
exist yet. There are a few chips in the
hands of developers— and they work—
but they’re not shipping in quantity yet.
The AMD family has been shipping
for nearly a year. The MIPS family has
been around for quite a while now, too—
at least the R2000 has (for maybe 2
years), and the R3000 is derived from
that. A few minor changes were made,
but the R3000 has essentially the same
genealogy and longevity as the R2000.
The MIPS chip is the most mature RISC
chip available except for the Clipper. It’s
even more mature than Sun’s SPARC.
Sun’s SPARC technology is about a
year and a half old, so it’s fairly mature,
too. One way to judge the maturity of a
chip is by the languages available to sup¬
port it (e.g., C, FORTRAN, and Ada).
This is particularly true for RISC. You
don’t want to be developing code on tools
that are themselves still in beta test. Sun
and MIPS have lots of software tools in
place; AMD has some; and Motorola has
very few. The Intel 80960 is relatively
new also; it has only recently started to
ship, but it does exist and it is shipping.
The venerable Clipper isn’t always re¬
membered because it’s not from one of
the major semiconductor houses— Sun’s
chips are from Fujitsu, for instance, and
Cypress is quite big in CMOS. However,
the Clipper performs reasonably, cer¬
tainly at about the same level as the
SPARC. It consists of a CPU and two
cache units mounted on a circuit board.
It’s marketed with a “black box” concept
like Motorola’s; Intergraph tells you how
to connect to the circuit board and not to
worry about what’s on the board— it’ll
take care of itself. And it does.
A Benefit Performance
We used the Dhrystone benchmark to
compare the various RISC chips. The
Dhrystone measures a chip’s ability to
handle integer operations, particularly
string operations such as those that occur
in compiling and the searching of
databases.
The AMD, MIPS, and Motorola chips
all run at about 42,000 Dhrystones per
second, with peak performance up about
46,000. For comparison, the 68020
CISC chip rates about 5500 Dhrystones,
and the 68030 has tested as high as 7000
Dhrystones. The 80386 can do 9000
Dhrystones but has an advantage for the
Dhrystone test over the 680x0 family due
to special string-manipulation instruc¬
tions. You can see that the differences
among RISC chips are much smaller
than the gap between CISC and RISC.
The Sun 4 SPARC (which is a Fujitsu
SPARC in the Sun 4) comes in at around
19,000 Dhrystones, so it’s not quite up to
the general-architecture RISC chips yet.
That may change. The new SPARC im¬
plementation from Cypress is faster, and
248 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
IN DEPTH
WORTH THE RISC
there are some gallium-arsenide SPARC
implementations coming from a com¬
pany called Prisma in Colorado Springs,
Colorado. A group at McDonnell Doug¬
las is also working on such a chip, and so
is BIT.
The Cypress SPARC chip is said to run
at about 42,000 Dhrystones at 33 MHz.
The Clipper comes in at 35,000, and In¬
tel's 80960 currently has the lowest per¬
formance rating, around 13,000 Dhry¬
stones. The top three performers are
MIPS, Motorola, and AMD. Then
comes Cypress and the Clipper. The next
best performer is Sun, with Intel current¬
ly bringing up the rear. Intel promises
more performance next year.
Performance, however, is relative to
your application. The Intel chips are
aimed at embedded control, such as laser
primers. You want a very fast CPU to run
your laser printer, but you don't really
care whether that same chip will run
spreadsheets and databases, Intel is aim¬
ing its RISC family at that market so a
high Dhrystone performance rating is
not crucial. However, all the chip
makers, certainly both Motorola and
AMD, are also targeting that market, be¬
cause it's a big one.
The workstation marketplace accounts
for only a small fraction of the total num¬
ber of CPU chips sold. Bui all the manu¬
facturers are trying to have a presence
there because it allows them to project
their chips toward the embedded-control
designers,
A Graphic Demonstration
The RISC chips will definitely have an
impact on graphics. They offer an alter¬
native to the special-purpose graphics
engines that companies like Silicon
Graphics have developed. They are com¬
puting power, pure and simple, regard¬
less of the application. Their designers
have put their entire computing knowl¬
edge into creating ultrahigh-speed
CPUs. What they have come up with are
general-purpose CPUs that in many
cases exceed the speed of special-pur¬
pose CPUs even within the special-pur¬
pose application. For example, AMD
has a graphics chip, called the quad-
pixel data-flow manager (QPDM),
which was specifically designed and op¬
timized to do graphics manipulations.
However, AMD has found that the 29000
RISC chip can outperform the QPDM in
most graphics operations. These RISC
chips are extremely high-speed devices
and will surely have an impact on graph¬
ics at all price levels,
AMD is talking about pricing its RfSC
chips at $99 next year. Given that sort of
Companies
Mentioned
Advanced Micro Devices
90 1 Thompson Place
P,0. Box 3453
Sunnyvale, CA 94088
(408) 732-2400
Inquiry 1058.
Cypress Semiconductor
3901 North First St.
San Jose, CA 95134
(408) 943-2600
Inquiry 1059.
Intel Corp.
3065 Bowers Ave.
Santa Clara, CA 9505 1
(408) 765-8080
Inquiry 1060.
Intergraph
2400 Geng Rd,
Palo Alto, CA 94303
(415)494-8800
Inquiry 1061.
MI PS Computer Systems
928 Arques Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408) 720-1700
Inquiry 1064.
Motorola
6501 William Cannon Dr, W
Austin, TX 78735
(800)441-2447
Inquiry 1062.
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
2550 Garcia Ave.
Mountain View, CA 94043
(415) 960-1300
Inquiry 1063.
price, the chips could even start coming
out in low-end personal computers, giv¬
ing them a graphics capability they’ve
never had before,
A Definite Impact
If you’re sitting back waiting for a win¬
ner to appear in the RISC sweepstakes
while you can buy a chip that will do the
job you want to do right now-, it’s prob¬
ably not worth waiting any longer. All
RISC technology is scalable. There's go¬
ing to be leap f ragging — a new chip will
come out in March, and another in July,
that sort of thing. But the quantum leap
in RISC technology has already oc¬
curred. All the top chips— the MIPS, the
AMD, the Motorola, and even the Clip¬
per— are already achieving the perfor¬
mance levels (within 30 percent or so)
that they will have by the end of this year.
RISC technology is here; it’s usable; and
it’s low-cost now.
Furthermore, a workstation's perfor¬
mance is primarily dependent on the de¬
signer, not on the chip. Take, for exam¬
ple, the MIPS family of machines. If you
compare the workstation from Silicon
Graphics (which uses a MIPS CPU) and
the workstation from MIPS Computer
Systems (which uses a MIPS CPU),
you’ll find that the machine from MIPS
has a much higher performance than the
one from Silicon Graphics. Why? Be¬
cause MIPS uses more effective caches;
it’s a more expensive machine; it has
been designed from the ground up to be a
high-performance computer. The Sili¬
con Graphics machine has been designed
to be a high-performance, low-cost
graphics machine. Thus, some of the
computational ability of the MIPS CPU
has been traded off for those graphics
features.
If you use the MIPS computer (with
64K bytes of static RAM cache) and the
low-end Silicon Graphics machine (with
a much simpler architecture) to run a
benchmark that has a lot of data manipu¬
lation, Eke the LIN PACK algorithm,
you'll find as much as a 50 percent speed
difference. This can be very significant,
and it’s probably the best example we can
give of how critical the design of the sys¬
tem is . So i f you * re buying a workstation ,
you should evaluate what’s being offered
as the workstation, run your code on it.
and work out what you want to buy based
on what the system will do with your
code. The underlying chip is far less
important.
The levels of RISC performance are so
high that applications that weren’t practi¬
cal on workstations in the recent past will
be in the near future. Applications, such
as three-dimensional rendering, that
took impossibly long times to compute
on last year’s workstations can now com¬
plete in one-tenth the time. Obviously,
RISC technology is going to have a pro¬
found effect on the way we use com¬
puters. ■
Trevor Marshall is chief engineer at Yarc
Systems Corp . in Thousand Oaks, Cali¬
fornia. Jane Morrill Tazdaar is BYTE '$
senior technical editor, in depth. They
can be reached on BIX as " marshall”
and ' Janet az, ” respectively.
FEBRUARY 1989 * B Y T E 249
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250 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 56 an Reader Service Card
IN DEPTH
PERSONAL WORKSTATIONS
How Fast Is Fast?
MIPS? MHz? MFLOPS? The ultimate measurement
is probably your own workload.
Bill Kindel
ur generation is
■ \ obsessed with
« m speed. Whether
we're thinking
about automobiles or com¬
puters, we're sure to ask,
“How fast will it go?” With
cars, miles per hour provides
an unambiguous answer. But
with computers, the best
answer is, “As fast as it can/1
Measuring a computer's
performance is not as simple
as we'd like. The most popu¬
lar measures of relative per¬
formance are, at best, impre¬
cise; at worst, they can be
misleading and meaningless.
I’ll discuss some of the pit-
falls inherent in assigning
performance numbers to
computer systems. Once you
are Familiar with some of the
factors that contribute to per-
formance, you should be bet¬
ter prepared to weigh their
significance when presented
with benchmark and performance test
results.
Timing the Instructions
The most common units of performance
are usually derived from measuring the
time required for the computer's proces¬
sor to execute some arbitrary set of
instructions. Such measurements are ex¬
pressed as KOPS (thousands of opera-
three different processors
might move a character string
from one place in memory to
another:
tions per second), MIPS (millions of in¬
structions per second), or MFLOPS
{millions of floating-point operations
per second). These measurements are
most meaningful when comparing pro¬
cessors from the same family, because
the instructions implemented on dissimi¬
lar processors can vary dramatically.
As an example of where instruction
timings can be misleading, consider how
* Processor A has a fairly
typical instruction set, which
includes load/ store operations
for 1 or more bytes at a time
and a broad selection of ad¬
dressing forms. The data
movement would be done by
repetitively loading chunks of
data from source memory to a
register and storing them
from the register to the desti¬
nation memory. At the end of
the loop is a completion test,
which becomes part of the
timing.
• Processor B implements a
richer instruction set, includ-
- ing special instructions for
character-string manipula¬
tion. In such a case, a single
instruction can be executed to
move the string from the
source memory location to the destina¬
tion without needing to use any of the
general registers. While the single in¬
struction appears to be quite long-run¬
ning compared with individual load and
store instructions, it should be able to
move the character string considerably
faster. A 5-to-l speed advantage is not
uncommon.
continued
ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT TlNNEY © !989
FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 2 Si
IN DEPTH
HOW FAST IS FAST?
The CPU Effect
At the center of the system is an os¬
cillator, the clock , which is often
crystal-controlled. Some personal com¬
puters use a single clock for everything
from the processor to the display. Work¬
stations and larger systems may have
separate clocks for each major subsys¬
tem. The clock frequency can be
halved, quartered, and further divided
to provide the correct frequencies to the
various chips. On the other hand, the
same result can be achieved by multi¬
plying the power-line frequency to raise
it (with less precision) to the desired
frequencies.
The CPU contains several logical
subunits. These can be implemented as
discrete components or integrated into a
single chip. Some number of registers
are used to hold pointers to data in
memory or intermediate computational
results and other processor-specific in¬
formation. A specialized subunit de¬
codes the operation code. The address
translation occurs in another subunit,
which provides the physical addresses of
memory to be fetched or stored. One or
more operation subunits actually per¬
form the instruction, sometimes split¬
ting off instructions based on the type of
data on which they operate.
Machine instructions are executed in
several steps, varying by the implemen¬
tation and the instruction being exe¬
cuted (see figure A). The first step is to
read the operation code from memory.
This is then decoded, and the number
and type of arguments are determined.
Arguments almost always follow the
operation in the instruction stream.
Each argument is read from memory
and interpreted in two more steps. In
most cases, arguments contain the ad¬
dresses of the data on which the instruc¬
tion operates. Sometimes “immediate
data” is provided, which can be used
without further interpretation. In other
cases, the argument points to a location
in memory that holds the address of the
actual data. Then it becomes necessary
to do yet another read from memory.
Data addresses are often the combina¬
tion of the address or offset given in the
argument and the contents of one or
more processor registers. All these cal¬
culations occur before the actual opera¬
tion can take place.
After calculating the data addresses,
any input values must be read from
memory (and processor registers) into
the operation unit. Finally, the actual
operation is performed. Any registers
or memory locations that are changed
are updated from the operation unit. In¬
structions that loop through memory
may read and write many locations in
sequence.
Several techniques are used to speed
up processing. The first is cache mem¬
ory, which can greatly reduce the time
the processor spends waiting for mem¬
ory accesses. Various strategies can be
used, but all depend on the fact that a
high percentage of memory accesses are
to a relatively small number of different
addresses.
The cache, which is logically adja¬
cent to the processor’s operation unit,
keeps copies of the current values of the
most recently accessed memory loca¬
tions. When memory is read, the cache
is searched first. Only if the cache does
not contain the address’s data is an ac¬
tual memory read requested. While a
read from memory requires several
clock cycles to complete, cache “hits’’
are nearly immediate.
A second significant technique is
called pipelining. Because different
parts of the processor are actually used
Data
Control
Figure A: Simplified processor flow. These several steps of machine-
instruction execution may vary depending on your machine and the instruction.
• Processor C is a RISC (reduced in¬
struction set computer) version. To gain
speed, RISC processors simplify both
their instruction sets and their addressing
modes. This speeds up both the instruc¬
tion-decoding and argument-preparation
phases of each instruction. RISC proces¬
sors also gain speed by using register-to-
register operations rather than operations
that access memory. As an aid, RISC
processors are sometimes provided with
more computational registers than non-
RISC processors have.
In the wide-open world of MIPS com¬
parisons, such processor mismatches are
common. The search for a representative
sample of instructions to time often set-
252 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
IN DEPTH
HOW FAST IS FAST?
for the execution of the various steps,
several instructions can be in different
stages of execution at the same time.
The “depth"1 of the pipeline is the maxi¬
mum number of concurrent instructions
that can be accommodated. Pipelines
operate under the basic assumption that
the instruction stream is located in con¬
secutive locations in memory, so in¬
structions are “prefetched” and de¬
coded before they are needed,
A third feature that can improve per¬
formance is virtual memory. Virtual
memory has been described as “making
a machine with a lot of memory appear
to have unlimited memory," This is of
particular value to applications that use
very large amounts of in-memory data.
Code and data are assigned “virtual ad¬
dresses" that are mapped by hardware
to physical memory locations. In most
cases, memory is divided into fixed-
size “pages,” typically 256 to 4096
bytes each.
Instead of forcing the application to
manage movement of data between disk
and memory, the system software takes
over responsibility for doing so on de¬
mand, When a memory reference is
made, the hardware determines if the
page has been mapped to a physical lo¬
cation in memory. If not, a “page fault”
occurs that system software must deal
with before execution of the application
can continue.
The fourth feature is the use of co¬
processors to execute certain classes of
instructions. The most common cases
are the handling of floating-point oper¬
ations and array processing. A copro¬
cessor is a separate processor, usually
with its own registers and internal fea¬
tures, which is attached to the system
bus. When the CPU decodes an instruc¬
tion that can be handled by the copro¬
cessor, a signal is sent to the latter to
cause it to perform the operation while
the CPU waits. If the coprocessor isn’t
configured, a fault occurs. This usually
results in software emulation of the co¬
processor instruction by the operating
system’s fault handler.
ties on a minimal common subset, which
may favor one processor over another,
A similar problem exists for compari¬
sons between floating-point processors.
Depending on internal architecture, it is
entirely possible that one floating-point
processor might be optimized for execu¬
tion of single-precision instructions
while another is optimized for double-
precision. For example, the first proces¬
sor might be rated at 4 M FLOPS in single
precision and 2 M FLOPS in double pre¬
cision; the second processor could gener¬
ate 3 M FLOPS in either mode. You could
compare this situation to gasoline octane
ratings. The ratings on the pump are
actually the average of the “motor oc¬
tane" and “research octane” ratings and
represent neither one accurately.
Comparing Clocks
Another approach is to compare proces¬
sor internal dock speeds, which are al¬
most always expressed in MHz. The ad¬
vantage to this approach is its simplicity;
dock speeds are published for various
systems’ microprocessors. Ignoring any
other factors, you can reasonably expect
that increasing the frequency of the sys¬
tem’s dock will result in a commensu¬
rate increase in processor speed.
The fallacy in comparing the dock
frequencies for dissimilar processors is
that they have little to do with each other.
The number of dock cycles used by a
processor depends very much on its ac¬
tual implementation. The more exotic
microprocessors, such as the Motorola
680x0 and Intel 80x36, require more
clock cycles for address preparation and
instruction decoding than their simpler
cousins. As a result, a 68000 operating tit
7 MHz in a Macintosh, Atari ST, or
Amiga is not necessarily seven times as
fast as an 8-bit 6502 running at 1 MHz.
Performance Constraints
These processor performance measure¬
ments are “best-case” situations subject
to a number of constraints. Those who
play the numbers game have a tendency
to use these theoretical numbers for com¬
parison without derating them to com¬
pensate for the fact that real workloads
are not ideal. Here are some common
factors that affect performance:
* Pipeline breaks: Among the tech¬
niques used to accelerate processing is
the overlapping of instruction execu¬
tions, Most high-performance proces¬
sors use a pipeline technique wherein
several consecutive instructions are in
various stages of execution— from decod¬
ing to argument preparation to the actual
operation— at the same instant. Transfers
of control cause the partially processed
instructions still in the pipeline to be dis¬
carded; such “breaks” greatly limit the
performance of tight loops, (For a more
detailed look at central processor func¬
tions that affect performance, see the
text box "The CPU Effect” at left,)
* Memory speed: If a processor is signif¬
icantly faster than its system’s memory,
the processor will waste dock cycles
waiting for data to be delivered. The pro¬
cessor can outpace memory by request¬
ing more bits at a time than the memory
is able to transfer. A 32-bit-wide request
that can be satisfied all at once by 32-bit
memory would have to be converted into
a pair of consecutive 16-bit requests if
the system were equipped with 16-bit
memory. The processor must wait for
both before proceeding,
* Memory cycle stealing: The memory-
speed problem is made worse by config¬
urations in which memory is shared be¬
tween the processor and another high¬
speed active element, such as the video
display chip. Because the processor and
video chip can’t access memory simulta¬
neously, a means of sharing memory-
access clock cycles must be imple¬
mented, The crudest form is to assign
alternate cycles to the processor and
video chip. It’s common for the video
chip (which must stay synchronized with
the display) to be given the ability to
“steal” cycles from the processor when-
ever it needs them,
* Software inefficiencies: Software
doesn’t automatically take advantage of
the performance features built into the
hardware on which it runs. While it is
common for operating systems to check
for such installed features as floating¬
point coprocessors and extended instruc¬
tion sets, application programs usually
don’t. Unless performance becomes a
problem, any optional features often will
be ignored. This results in fewer trouble
calls to the software developers at the
cost of lost performance on high-end
systems,
* I/O and other system bottlenecks : Very
rarely is the CPU allowed to operate at
full speed. There is almost always some
limiting factor outside it, such as waiting
for disk I/O (including reading a page in a
virtual memory system). Even the nor¬
mal operations of related components
can cut into the processor’s throughput.
A real-time clock generates interrupts on
a regular basis, which causes the CPU to
set aside its processing, handle the inter¬
rupt, and resume.
Operating-system features, such as
multitasking and virtual memory, pro¬
vide solutions to the sharing of critical
resources {i.e,, CPU and memory)
among multiple programs executing con¬
currently. This is not without cost, how¬
ever; while total system throughput typi-
contimted
FEBRUARY 1 989 * B Y T E 253
IN DEPTH
HOW FAST IS FAST?
cally increases, the performance of any
given program is usually degraded.
In the case of virtual memory page
faults, the performance impact is greatly
increased by an embedded disk I/O re¬
quest. If, for example, an application is
actively using memory locations on 50
different pages, but only 40 physical
pages are provided in its “working set,”
then 20 percent of its memory references
are likely to generate page faults— and a
subsequent performance degradation.
I/O and memory bandwidth are also
factors. The time required to perform a
single memory or disk access is subject to
interference from other accesses. A disk
unit can do only one request at a time, so
a queue could form that forces new re¬
quests to wait for completion of those al¬
ready outstanding. Even with adequate
disk drives and memory, various system
components have limits on the number of
operations they can perform per second.
Other bottlenecks exist within system
software. Any system service that is used
heavily has the potential for limiting
total throughput. As system complexity
has increased, the probability of conten¬
tion between tasks for critical resources
has also increased.
The “B” Word
Benchmarking has long been the norm
for large computer acquisitions. A few
such benchmarks have become standard
measures of performance. Those who
are concerned with computational per¬
formance have relied on the Whetstone
benchmark (which also has a double-pre¬
cision version) to rate system perfor¬
mance in Whetstones. Another favorite
is the Sieve of Eratosthenes, which mea¬
sures the efficiency of a compiler’s gen¬
erated code as much as it measures raw
CPU performance.
Such standard benchmarks are most
valuable to those whose needs match the
benchmark. But for the rest of us, they
are only indicators like other metrics.
I believe the best way to measure a sys¬
tem’s performance is to load it up with
the work you intend to do on it. This is
the basis of a benchmarking process that
will be most meaningful to you. You de¬
fine a representative workload and then
evaluate it on all the different systems
under consideration. While not always
possible, this sort of testing provides you
with results that are virtually indisput¬
able— from your point of view.
Test It Yourself
MIPS, MHz, MFLOPS, and the assorted
other metrics all attempt to give a basis
for comparison of various systems’ per¬
formance. Each is valid within the con¬
straints under which it is calculated;
none is valid for all systems under all cir¬
cumstances. As they say in the car ads,
“Your mileage will vary.’’ Take those re¬
sults as a first-order approximation only.
The only real way to predict how well
a system will perform for you is to test it
yourself. Besides, a hands-on test will
tell you a lot about both the system and
the people you’ll turn to for assistance. ■
Editor’s note: For a further look at the
muddled world of performance measure¬
ment and our attempt to make evaluations
meaningful, see “Introducing the New
BYTE Benchmarks, ” June 1988 BYTE.
Bill Kindel is a principal software engi¬
neer for Digital Equipment Corp. in Box-
borough, Massachusetts. (The opinions
expressed in this article are those of the
author, and not of his employer.) He can
be reached on BIX clo “ editors . ”
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254 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
IN DEPTH
PERSONAL WORKSTATIONS
Art + 2 Years
= Science
The state of the art
in workstation graphics today
Phillip Robinson
It’s easier to say “state
of the art” than to de¬
fine it. It’s easy to stare
in wonder at a three-
dimensional model of an air¬
plane on a Personal Iris work¬
station from Silicon Graphics
or to sit in stunned silence
while a Tektronix worksta¬
tion projects a stereographic
image of the space shuttle.
And there’s no doubt these
machines rate a place in any
discussion of the state of the
art in workstation graphics.
But there are other applica¬
tions that also show the po¬
tency of workstation graph¬
ics, including powerful com¬
puter-aided publishing (CAP)
and fast two-dimensional elec¬
tronic CAD packages. These
applications may not show the
sophisticated and subtle color
shading of a three-dimension¬
al modeling program; how¬
ever, they do display large
areas of WYSIWYG text and graphics
and can redraw complex overlays of
colorful two-dimensional circuit dia¬
grams within fractions of a second.
How do you determine the state of the
art in graphics? What are the current
products, concerns, and technologies for
graphics on these 32-bit computing plat¬
forms? These are the subjects I’ll be
discussing.
First, I’ll define the specific region of
computing price and performance I’m
talking about. After some drastic cuts in
1987 and 1988, the prices of 32-bit work¬
stations dropped down to the top prices
for personal computers. Apollo, Sun,
and DEC (Digital Equipment Corp.) all
offer entry-level workstations for around
$5000.
These price cuts stunned workstation
devotees, who expected 32-
bit machines to remain at the
$20,000 level, leaping in per¬
formance but not dipping
much in price. Clearly the
competitive threat from mi¬
crocomputers was serious.
Most of the lowest-priced ma¬
chines, however, were disk¬
less “nodes” intended to
work on a network.
For $5000, you get a 32-bit
CPU (typically a 68020, as in
the Mac II), 4 megabytes of
RAM, a 15-inch mono¬
chrome monitor, some ver¬
sion of Unix along with a win¬
dowing interface, and an
Ethernet interface. Add a
local hard disk drive, a color-
display controller, and a large
color monitor (typically 16-
inch or 19-inch), and you’re
looking at $8000 to $10,000
or more.
As the RAM, hard disk
drive, and monitor grow, the
price grows too, up to $20,000 or
$25,000. Some companies have different
model numbers within that range ($5000
to $25,000) that substitute a different,
faster CPU into the system. Hewlett-
Packard, IBM, Silicon Graphics, Tek¬
tronix, and many other companies join
the market when it is defined as extend¬
ing up to the mid-twenties.
continued
ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT TINNEY © 1989
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 255
IN DEPTH
ART + 2 YEARS = SCIENCE
Then comes a gray area. The personal
workstations that are quite capable of
rwo-tf/mensjonaJ work, such as CAP,
computer-aided software engineering
(CASE), electronic CAD (EGAD, or
EDA for electronic design automation),
and mechanical CAD (MCAD), peter out
when assigned tougher tasks.
They give way to mid-range worksta¬
tions that cost from $35,000 to $60,000
and are capable of three-dimensional
graphics like those used for solids mod¬
eling, animation, simulation, and image
processing. The mid-range systems boast
more possible on-screen colors, graphics
accelerators to speedily figure new pixel
positions and hues, as well as more
RAM, CPU MIPS (million instructions
per second), and disk capacity.
Above the mid-range are the high-end
or superworkstation systems that cost
$80,000 to $100,000 and more. These
are packed with yet more MIPS, special¬
ized coprocessors for graphics, and even
new architectures, such as multiprocess¬
ing CPUs. By then, you're talking about
the gray area between workstations and
minicomputers.
If s important not to forget terminals,
which are still used in many circum¬
stances. There are graphics terminals
that contain special graphics-accelera¬
tion hardware. These can download
primitive instructions from a mainframe
or minicomputer and then perform the
actual display work locally.
Looking up from PCs
Graphics on the IBM PC, Macintosh,
Amiga, or Atari start from scratch,
meaning to some people no more than the
ability to display color on the screen.
Progressive enhancements increase the
number of colors available, the number
of pixels on the screen, and the systems
software for manipulating graphics
primitives. Since the birth of the Mac,
systems software often encompasses in¬
terface graphics such as windows, icons,
and pull-down menus.
Few personal computers, however,
even 80386 speed-burners or Mac llx
systems with multiple megabytes of
RAM and floating-point processors,
have any sort of hardware for accelerat¬
ing graphics performance. They slick to
the tried-and-true line of improving
graphics performance by improving
CPU power— that is, adding more system
MIPS to speed the calculations involved
in graphics. They may have special chips
for sending the graphics bits to the
display, but the actual algorithms of
graphics— transforms, clipping, scaling,
shading, and so on— are handled almost
entirely by software.
Some PC and Mac specifications
match what you'll find in workstations.
For example, the Mac II with Apple's
own color-display board can produce up
to 16.7 million different colors, display¬
ing 256 at a time. Thai's the same as
Apollo's personal workstations, for ex¬
ample, and is equivalent to 8 bit planes of
memory for color (i.e., 2s colors). When
a 24-bit color board is added to the Mac
II, it can even display as many colors at a
F
I ew
personal computers
have any hardware for
accelerating graphics
performance .
time as the Personal iris workstation.
There are also a few add-on boards for
PCs and Macs that use standard graphics
coprocessors, such as the Texas Instru¬
ments 34010 and the Intel 82786. Such
chips can take graphics instructions from
applications software and directly exe¬
cute them without resorting to complex
systems-software algorithms.
The Amiga comes with its own set of
graphics coprocessor chips, and the
ALari systems can take advantage of
Atari's proprietary “blitter1' chip for
speeding graphics. The speed improve¬
ments from such accelerators can be
enormous— as can the general graphics-
calculation improvements that come
from having a floating-point mathemat¬
ics coprocessor. A personal computer
with an added graphics coprocessor and
a top-notch floating-point unit, such as
the Weitek mathematics processors, may
have more coprocessor firepower than
many lowr-end workstations can boast,
although adding the extras can also boost
the price of the complete personal com¬
puter system beyond that of a work¬
station.
The systems at the top of this entry
level can have proprietary graphics-
accelerator boards or chips, high-speed
CPUs, lots of memory, and other fancy
hardware features, such as ^-buffers for
hidden-line removal. Most workstations
also support graphics standards, such as
PHIGS (Programmer's Hierarchical In¬
teractive Graphics Standard) and X Win¬
dows under Unix, that provide some
compatibility between different compa¬
nies’ systems and even between different
models from a single company. Personal
computers with extra coprocessor boards
may be cut adrift from such compatibil¬
ity, needing special drivers for each
CAD or CAP program (typically includ¬
ing AutoCAD. VersaCAD, PageMaker,
or Ventura Publisher) that they are able
to run.
Frame Buffers, Z-Buffers, and
Resolution
Most computer-graphics systems today
use a display system with a "frame buf¬
fer" of RAM memory. This memory can
be separate from the conventional RAM
or can simply be an assigned part of it (as
is the case in the IBM PC). Graphics in¬
formation from the application program
or systems software is converted into pat¬
terns in the buffer that change with pro¬
gram demands and is fed from the buffer
to the screen at a regular, timed rate.
That rate must be quite fast in worksta¬
tions, because there are so many pixels
on a workstation display. The screen-
refresh rate is physically determined by
the display hardware and is kept high
enough to eliminate bothersome flicker.
Combine a large number of pixels with a
high refresh rate, and you're looking at
putting each pixel up every couple of
hundred nanoseconds— leaving little
time to calculate changes for a pixel and
enter them into the frame buffer. This
problem can be tamed a bit by adding
double buffering to the system.
The "megapixel" is a common center-
point for workstation resolution— l mil¬
lion points on the display, although the
screens range From somewhat under that
{1024 by 800 pixels) to well over it {! 600
by 1280 pixels). The higher resolution is
typically used only in monochrome ap¬
plications like publishing, where large
pages need to be displayed on a single
screen, showing both small text fonts and
gray-scale pictures with their different
monochrome intensity levels. Higher
resolutions are not often mentioned as a
prospect for workstations: More process¬
ing speed and colors are in much more
demand.
A frame buffer with a single bit plane
can only contain monochrome images:
each bit is either a 0 or a \ and translates
into either an “off or an “on" pixel, re¬
spectively, on the screen. Gray-scale
images or color can be represented by
multiple bit planes logically laid on top of
each other with more than 1 bit of RAM
continued
256 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Putting Workstations to Work
Thousands of applications programs
exist for graphics workstations.
Here are a few that exemplify the abili¬
ties, fields, and prices of the genre.
They range from those that represent
that two-dimensional foundation, sys-
tems-level software, to those at the true
“state of the art” in animation and
rendering-
Systems Software
The 68030-based workstation from
NeXT runs the Mach version of Unix
and comes with an object-oriented soft¬
ware “environment” called NextStep.
The NextStep environment combines
both applications developers' tools and
a user interface. NextStep has four com*
ponents— the Window Server, the
Workspace Manager, the Application
Kit, and the Interface Builder— which
provide windows , menus, icons, and a
simple process for putting building
blocks of code together to form new
programs.
NextStep uses Display PostScript as a
device-independent graphics “library”
for sending graphics information to the
display. IBM has licensed NextStep for
use on its own workstations. NextStep
doesn't require any particular graphics
hardware. It represents the first major
endorsement of Display PostScript as a
graphics software standard.
CASE
Athena Systems makes a CASE and
simulation tool called Foresight for de¬
fining real-time software and hardware
systems. It runs on Sun workstations
and uses graphical block diagrams and
data-flow chans to represent physical
processes.
Foresight can animate models such as
heating systems, simulating their be¬
havior to help find design flaws. Blocks
can be connected hierarchically or in
parallel, simulating sequential or paral¬
lel processing. Foresight is a two-
dimensional application. It costs more
than S23, 000.
CAP
Frame Maker, from Frame Technol¬
ogy, is another prime example of a two-
dimensional workstation-graphics ap¬
plication. It is a CAP program that can
integrate text and graphics on pages for
books, newsletters, specification
sheets, documentation, or just about any
other sort of publication.
It can run on the least expensive
graphics workstations— such as the
Sun-3/50— and includes its own word
processor, page-layout program, spell¬
ing checker and corrector, indexing
ability, drawing program, and Post¬
Script output routines. It costs about
$2500.
EDA
Electronic design automation, also
known as electronic computer-aided de¬
sign (ECAD), is a major part of the two-
dimensional graphics market. Software
abounds for designing and simulating
VLSI chips, circuit boards, and even
complete electrical systems. Mentor
Graphics offers a variety of programs
for drawing and “capturing”— that is,
converting into electronically logical
files— circuit diagrams and then simu¬
lating the behavior of those circuits.
These programs require color and run
on a variety of workstations, including
Tektronix, Apollo, and Sun.
Compact Software offers programs
for designing and simulating radio- fre¬
quency and microwave circuits. Micro-
wave Harmonica, for example (see
photo A), can analyze and optimize any
microwave nonlinear analog circuit
under single- or multitone excitations. It
has an interface to Mentor Graphics
software and many other third-party
programs to use schematics captured in
those environments.
Microwave Harmonica runs on Sun,
Apollo, HP, and MicroVAX worksta¬
tions with two-dimensional graphics,
typically using an S-bit-plane system
with 4 to S megabytes of RAM. It can
link to the vector-processing abilities of
supercomputers. Microwave Harmoni¬
ca, and Compact's other similar pro¬
grams for linear and gallium-arsenide
circuits, use graphics for both the user
interface and the output of results. Com¬
pact also offers an AutoArt II program
for layout of the physical circuits. Some
of the software also runs on personal
computers.
The workstation software prices
range from $7000 to $25,000 per user,
depending on the number of users at a
company. Efficient execution of EDA
programs requires fast RAM architec¬
tures, timely bit-blit operations, and
software routines that permit high two-
continued
Photo A* A two-dimensional graphical display from
Microwave Harmonica , a program for circuit design
and simulation. (Photo courtesy of Compact Software .)
Photo B; A three-dimensional wire- frame display from
Anvil-5000, a design and drafting program for
mechanical engineers, (Photo courtesy of
Manufacturing and Consulting Services J
FEBRUARY 1989 * B Y T E 257
dimensional vector-per-second drawing
rates.
Scientific Simulation
Creare makes a program called Fluent
that models fluid -flow, heat-transfer,
and combustion dynamics. It uses nu¬
merical-modeling techniques to solve
various complex equations of Fluid dy¬
namics, and then uses graphics to plot
the results of those computations. Flu¬
ent is used in automobile aerodynamic
research and in studies of cooling towers
and turbine machinery.
Fluent runs on Micro VAX, Tek¬
tronix, Apollo, Sun, Silicon Graphics,
supercomputers, and mini-supercom¬
puters (like those from Alliant). Prices
depend on CPU power, ranging from
around $9600 a year to $40,000 a year
(on a Cray supercomputer). A typical
installation might use a Sun- 3/260 or
Sun-4 with color and a floating-point
processor. Because the compulation is
so central, high floating-point perfor¬
mance is more important than any par¬
ticular graphics processor.
Three-Dimensional CAD
MCS (Manufacturing and Consulting
Services) makes Anvil-5000, a general-
purpose three-dimensional design and
drafting program for mechanical engi¬
neers (see photo B). It runs on many dif¬
ferent workstations and can handle
everything from basic three-dimen¬
sional drafting to finite-element mesh
generation and 5- axis numerical -control
machining (CAM),
Anvil comes in six different mod¬
ules— drafting, modeling, rendering.
finite element, simple machining, and
advanced machining— and is sold on an
annual- license basis. The cost ranges
from $10,000 a year for a basic system
to $38,000 per year for a loaded system.
When Anvil is purchased for multiple
“seats,” say a dozen or more, the
loaded-system price can be cut in half
for each seat.
Bechtel makes a program called
Walkthru. The program takes a three-
dimensional CAD model from some
other program and allows you to inter¬
act with that model as you might in “the
real world.” Using a three-dimensional
color graphics workstation, a mouse,
and a “button/dial” box with 8 dials and
32 buttons, you can “walk through” the
model, controlling your imaginary
body and head motion. Walkthru pro¬
vides perspective, simulated views of
the model— a boon to factory designers
or architects, Walkthru runs on Silicon
Graphics workstations. It demands at
least 4 megabytes of RAM, 24 bit planes
for color, ^-buffering, z-clipping, and a
but ton/d iai box for input.
Solids Modeling and Animation
Intelligent Light’s workstation software
is used in industrial design, illustration,
scientific and engineering animation,
video and film animation, and techni¬
cal publication (see photo C). It runs on
Apollo workstations (and soon on Stel¬
lar graphics supercomputers).
Intelligent Light offers tools for
model building and scene creation (in¬
cluding placement of light sources and
specification of surface appearance),
animation, rendering {with Phong and
specular lighting, antialiasing, fog, and
other special effects, including full
color up to 96 bits per pixel), and image
manipulation and recording. Images
can be shown on screen or sent directly
to videotape or slide. Prices range from
$30,000 to $100,000,
Wavefront is the name I heard more
than any other when I asked about “state
of the art” in graphics software for
workstations (see photo D). The firm
sells a software package for three-
dimensional dynamic imaging and
high-end rendering and animation. The
modules in this package are a modeler
(a simple polygon modeler, not a full-
fledged CAD package), a Preview mod¬
ule (for choreography of animation),
and Image (for rendering— this module
can crank away for many hours to create
static images that are then put together
for motion).
Image packs features such as shad¬
ows, ray-tracing, and reflectivity on the
high end, and can also turn to lower-end
work such as faceting, smooth shading,
and the like. Wavefront software runs
on many workstations, including all the
Silicon Graphics machines and Tek¬
tronix and Hewlett-Packard mid-range
systems. Prices start at $23,000 and go
up to $55,000, depending on the plat¬
form’s performance.
Wavefront recently announced that it
will offer its software for less than
$10,000, as a set of tools that other de¬
velopers can use to add rendering to
their own CAD or graphics programs or
that neophytes can use with templates.
The kernel of this kit will cost under
$2000,
Photo C: A three-dimensional solid display from
Intelligent Light 's software for model building,
animation, image manipulation, and so on. (Photo
courtesy of Intelligent Light.)
Photo D: A display from Wavefront *s software for three-
dimensional dynamic imaging and high-end rendering
and animation . (Photo produced by Wavefront
Technologies © 1988.)
258 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
IN DEPTH
ART + 2 YEARS = SCIENCE
assigned to each screen pixel. (The phys¬
ical organization of the memory bits
needn’t be anything like the logical orga¬
nization. The translation between the
two is handled by video-memory drivers
or controller electronics.) Monochrome
images are often all that is needed for
graphics applications like CASE or CAP,
although gray-scale abilities can be
handy for publishing or even just for
pull-down menus and icons.
The least-expensive workstations are
monochrome, single bit-plane systems.
Low-cost color systems can get by with 6
bit planes, although 8 bit planes is more
common for standard, inexpensive color.
To simultaneously display any of the
choices in a palette of 16.7 million
colors, 24 bit planes provide “full
color,” also known as “true color.”
Some workstations also offer more bit
planes specifically for use in pull-down
menus or window identification (laying
down borders that show where windows,
menus, and icons begin and end— infor¬
mation a mouse or other cursor needs).
Advanced graphics systems also use z-
buffers and double-buffering. A z-buffer
is additional video memory that holds in¬
formation about the z axis: which objects
on the screen are in front of which other
objects when seen in three dimensions. A
z-buffer adds cost to the system because
of the price of memory and its associated
controllers, and it can even slow down
some simple two-dimensional applica¬
tions, but it can add sophistication to
powerful solids-modeling programs.
Double-buffering uses more bit planes
to hold multiple presentations of the
same area on the screen. Screen changes
are faster if all the display controller has
to do is change which part of the frame-
buffer memory it looks to, instead of up¬
dating the information in a single section
and then redisplaying that.
Although frame buffers and z-buffers
can be built from standard RAM chips,
in workstations they are often built from
the faster video RAM (VRAM) chips.
These more expensive cousins to stan¬
dard dynamic RAMs (DRAMs) offer
two I/O ports or buses, allowing them to
provide their data to the screen at the
same time the CPU and graphics pro¬
gram are altering it. (Naturally, there is
control over actually reading and writing
the same bit at the same time.)
Scan Conversion, Transforms,
Scaling, and Clipping
Graphics hardware can go far beyond the
frame-buffer memory that holds the
image, and the CRT or screen driver that
moves that image out into view. A series
of operations must be performed before
the appropriate pixels are placed in the
frame buffer. The first is to generate a
display list— a set of commands for
graphics, such as “Draw a line from
point A to point B,” “Put a filled circle
of radius r and center at (jt,y),” or
“There’s a sphere of such and such a size
at this point.” Three-dimensional
models may even make use of nurbs , or
nonuniform rational B-spline curves,
which are handy for representing com¬
plex shapes and curves. Moving them in
software is a complex effort.
The display list is hierarchical, repre¬
senting repeated parts of the complete
image as subroutines that need to be de¬
tailed only once. The display list can be
managed by the main system hardware or
by a separate display-list processor that
offloads the work from the CPU and so
speeds up the entire graphics process.
Most workstations have the CPU handle
the display-list management, as do most
personal computers. Some personal
computer add-on graphics boards have a
separate display-list processor, going be¬
yond the typical hardware of a worksta¬
tion. Graphics terminals often use
display-list processors because so much
of their graphics work must be done lo¬
cally: The narrow bandwidth of the
serial connection to a mainframe or
minicomputer denies them the luxury of
downloading completed graphics.
The primitives of the display list must
be translated into individual pixels by a
process called rasterizing or scan conver¬
sion. As part of this scan conversion, the
computer must calculate how the picture
looks from the viewer’s perspective. If
it’s a three-dimensional image, the com¬
puter needs to know where in space the
image is located, how big it is, and where
the viewer’s eye is in respect to the
image. These calculations are called
transformations and include scaling the
object to the desired viewing size. Each
point that describes the object must be
transformed and scaled with respect to
the viewer.
One specific operation that can
streamline transformations is the bit-
block transfer, or bit-blit. This is vital to
the functioning of many windowing and
other two-dimensional systems and has
been built into a variety of hardware sys¬
tems, including the Amiga’s coproces¬
sors and all of Apollo’s workstations.
Then there are two clipping opera¬
tions. The first concerns which part of
the object the viewer is going to see. This
is clipping in “world coordinates” or
“clipping in the real world” and deter-
continued
Back,
by popular
demand.
Just a few years ago, illegal hunting
and encroaching civilization had all but
destroyed the alligator population in the
south. They were added to the official
list of endangered species in the United
States.
Now alligators have made a
comeback.
Conservationists
intent on preserving this
legendary reptile helped the
alligator get back on its feet
Once again some southern
swamps and marshes are
teeming with alligators.
With wise
conservation policies,
other endangered
species have also made
comebacks . . . the
cougar, gray whale,
Pacific walrus, wood
duck, to name a few.
If you want to help
save our endangered
species, join the National
Wildlife Federation,
Department 106, 1412
16th Street, NW,
Washington, DC
HSI 20036.
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 259
IN DEPTH
ART + 2 YEARS = SCIENCE
mines which parts of the object need to
be used throughout the rest of the display
process. The second operation is “dip¬
ping against a window/' where any parts
that will fall outside the on-screen win¬
dow are trimmed so they don’t wrap
around and distort the image, or waste
processing time on parts of the image
that won’t be seen.
Finally, there are special operations,
such as antialiasing, that serve to im¬
prove the look of a graphics image after it
has been transformed, scaled, and
clipped. Antialiasing turns selected
pixels partially on to fill in the “jaggies"
or “sawtooth” forms that can appear in
diagonal lines or arcs. These effects can
even distort the apparent image or cause
distracting moire patterns. Higher- reso¬
lution displays can also diminish these
jaggies, but can be much more costly.
Wire Frames, Solids Rendering,
and Animation
Three-dimensional graphics demand all
the same operations as two-dimensional
graphics, plus many more. These three-
dimensional processes— which actually
create a two-dimensional view of an
imagined three-dimensional object— can
be handled by any system as software al¬
gorithms, These processes are so compu¬
tation-intensive and complex that they
are practical only when handled in hard¬
ware.
There are actually three distinct styles
of three-dimensional work: wire frames,
solids rendering, and animation. Wire
frames display the vertices and edges of
objects, sometimes omitting the hidden
lines and surfaces that are overlapped by
closer lines and surfaces. Wire-frame
work can be done with so-called two-
dimensional workstations, although
some of the work, such as hidden-line re¬
moval, will slow considerably without
hardware assist.
Solids rendering or modeling uses
imaginary light ing and shading to fill in
the surfaces of a three-dimensional ob¬
ject. The latest trend in solids modeling
is photorealism , which attempts to make
the view of a simulated, displayed object
as similar as possible to that of an actual
solid object. Solids rendering can be
done in many ways, with various opera¬
tions and algorithms that yield varying
levels of realism. Many of these algo¬
rithms can take an enormous amount of
time if done entirely in software. For
example, 1 have used the sophisticated
ray-tracing algorithm option of the Solid
Dimensions program from Visual Infor¬
mation. Running on a Mac II with its
floating-point coprocessor, it can take 12
to 24 hours to render a single, simple
scene with several uncomplicated ob¬
jects.
Solids modeling has long been thought
the province of “three-dimensional”
workstations, the mid-range and high-
end systems that have special hardware to
speed the rendering algorithms. In fact,
the terms “low-end workstation” and
“two-dimensional workstation” were
often synonymous. Silicon Graphics' in¬
troduction of the Personal Iris brings
C
lyf ilicon
Graphics ’ Personal
Iris brings solids
modeling into the
league of personal
workstations.
hardware- assisted solids modeling into
the league of personal workstations.
Animation demands even more from a
computer system, with the ideal being
real-time animation: (he ability to gener¬
ate rendered solids quickly enough to
simulate objects in motion. This means
at least 10 display changes per second.
The animation can be done in non-real
time, calculating frames one at a time,
and then saving them in mass storage for
viewing in sequence later, or sending
them to a videotape peripheral.
Animation is not only useful for art
and commercials but has been put to
work in presentation graphics for design
proposals, for analyzing the fit and inter¬
action of mechanical devices, and for
modeling fluid flow in many fields. Ani¬
mation has been handled on everything
from the best mid-range workstations to
supercomputers, It is becoming a reality
in the low end with the introduction of
the Personal Iris.
Depth Cueing and
Hidden-Line Removal
One three-dimensional technique is
called depth cueing. It varies the pixel in¬
tensity relative to the distance that pixel
represents from the viewer's eye. Both
deplh-cueing and hidden-! ine-removal
techniques depend on a ^-buffer.
To render a wire frame with a solid ap¬
pearance, the hidden surfaces must be
omitted and the visible surfaces of the
object must be filled with color or gray¬
scale shades. Hiding background edges
and surfaces can be done with several
levels of transparency, ranging from
opaque to “screen door” (where a pale
transparent shade fills the closer sur¬
face), which gives the illusion of looking
through a fine mesh.
Some operations are more appropriate
to two-dimensional than three-dimen¬
sional applications and serve mainly to
slow down three-dimensional operations
without improving the quality of the
image. Antialiasing, for instance, isn't
as important in three-dimensional solids
where the shaded fills will provide some
of the same smoothing. It can even make
the images fuzzy. In three-dimensional
wire- frame work, however, antialiasing
can still play a role.
Gouraud and Phong Shading,
Ray Tracing, and Radiosity
When it comes time to fill a surface,
there are many different algorithms or
schemes for determining the particular
shade or color for each surface or pixel.
The simplest operation is constant shad¬
ing: A model is broken logically into
polygons that will show on-screen, and a
single shade or color is assigned to each
entire polygon. This is a quick rendering
scheme, but it creates distortion when
side-by-side polygons have two shading
levels. You'll be able to see a line of de¬
lineation between the two that will show
as a facet of the object and may not be
intended as such.
The Gouraud algorithm provides one
way to ameliorate that distortion, by lin¬
early changing the shading across each
polygon. The algorithm samples two op¬
posite edges of the polygon and then
shades across the face between the
boundaries. This removes abrupt shad¬
ing changes and can be done in software
or hardware. It is usually made a part of
the scan -converter hardware in high-end
graphics workstations.
The Phong algorithm is more exacting
than the Gouraud. Instead of polygon-
by- polygon examination and linear aver¬
aging, Phong looks at individual pixels.
That makes it much more time-intensive
than Gouraud as well. Gouraud shading
can approximate Phong shading, how¬
ever, by making the polygons smaller
and smaller.
Ray tracing and radiosity are some of
the most advanced operations in the pur¬
suit of photorealism. There are two types
of surface- reflect ion effects: specular
and diffuse. Specular reflection has a
260 BYTE - FEBRUARY 1989
\ N DEPTH
ART 4* 2 YEARS = SCIENCE
shiny effect, bouncing back light as
though from a smooth surface, Diffuse
reflection does not directly reflect as
much light, instead spreading it out in
more directions as though from a rough
surface.
Ray tracing is a specular effect that
traces each light ray from the assumed
viewer’s eye to the surfaces in a three-
dimensional graphics image. The ray is
bounced mathematically from one sur¬
face to the next until it reaches a non-
ref lective surface, and its lighting effects
are noted. Even for a workstation, this
can take some time, particularly without
hardware assist and acceleration. Soft¬
ware can contain the compute task for ray
tracing somewhat by limiting the number
of rays traced.
Radiosity is a diffuse-lighting effect.
It takes the diffuse light that reflects off
each object in a scene and calculates the
impact that light will have on adjacent
objects. These calculations could be
done in software, but again, that would
take hours unless aided by special hard¬
ware or given a time limit. Hewlett-Pack¬
ard’s mid-range SRX workstations in¬
clude hardware for Gouraud and Phong
shading with programs for radiosity
modeling with progressive refinement in
software (see photo 1),
MIPS, MFLOPS, UNPACK,
Vectors, and Polygons
Any graphics effect could be created by
nearly any computer, given enough time.
However, graphics performance is typi¬
cally measured in terms of speed. This
was aided by an IBM study in the early
1980s showing that productivity on a
computer was very closely related to the
graphics speed or “interactivity” of the
display. If the picture on the screen could
update in less than half a second, produc¬
tivity was at a peak. Between half and
t h ree-quarters of a second , there is a very
sharp “knee” in the graph where produc¬
tivity falls. That half-second update is
what most workstation manufacturers
aim for as a minimum. Markets such as
animation— which requires a minimum
of 10 frames a second— need even more
speed.
The simplest speed measurement is
the power of the system CPU, typically
measured in MIPS. This is a good first
cut at graphics power because most per¬
sonal workstations end up doing a lot of
graphics work— both applications com¬
puting and graphics scan-conversion al¬
gorithms— in software. The MIPS mea¬
surement ranges from the l or so DEC
VAX 1 1/780 MIPS of an 80386-based
personal computer to the 7 or 10 MIPS of
the SPARC-chip-based $un-4 system or
the RISC -chip- based Personal Iris from
Silicon Graphics. Adding a floating¬
point mathematics coprocessor can boost
the system’s MIPS.
In fact, floating-point performance is
so important in graphics that MFLOPS
(million floating-point operations per
second) are often used as a yardstick in
place of MIPS. A system still needs a
good measure of MIPS to handle the
standard computing tasks, so the ratio
between MFLOPS and MIPS shouldn't
get too big, or the graphics task could be¬
come compute- bound by standard appli¬
cations work. The Personal Iris claims a
10- MI PS CPU with a 20-MFLOPS peak
graphics processor. When you’re hear¬
ing tales of great MFLOPS, however,
you should inquire about their origin:
Peak MFLOPS can be much higher than
the MFLOPS rating from a standard pro¬
gram such as the LIN PACK benchmark,
a 100 by 100 matrix calculation in double
precision.
Even with such standardization, dif¬
ferent machines will be faster on differ¬
ent tasks, depending on which graphics
operations have been built into hardware,
optimized in software, or left to generic
software routines. The number of vectors
drawn per second (for two-dimensional
and wire-frame images) and polygons
drawn or shaded per second (for three-
dimensional solids-modeling images) are
other measures of performance. You'll
often see a sequence of these lined up in
workstation specifications, with values
in the tens and hundreds of thousands*
depending on the workstation model and
graphics options. A system with Gouraud
shading in hardware will be much faster
on that operation even though it has a
lower MFLOPS rating on FORTRAN
programs and may even have a lower bit-
blit speed on two-dimensional images.
Workstations sometimes can be linked
together in a network to grind away at
complex graphics tasks. Apollo, for in¬
stance, can use its Network Computing
System (NCS) to dish out parts of a com¬
plex graphics-calculation task to other
workstations and their CPUs’ MIPS.
(Hewlett-Packard has recently licensed
the NCS for its owm systems.) The result
can then be displayed on a single work¬
station.
Libraries and Device Independence
All the hardware power doesn’t exist in a
vacuum. Applications developers love to
have some sort of standard graphics de¬
vice to which they can adapt their pro¬
grams. Workstation hardware tends to
differ much more than hardware in the
personal computer arena. Although the
68020 is the most standard CPU (and
plenty of others are in use), workstations
have different addressing and memory
continued
Photo 1: The ray-1 racing fea 1 ure of the HP 9000 TurboSRX engineering workstation
from Hewlett-Packard allows you to produce the realistic highlights, reflections .
and effect of transmittance seen in this screen shot. (The data to produce this image
is courtesy of Chrysler. Photo courtesy of Hewlett-Packa rd. )
FEBRUARY 1989 - B Y T E 261
IN DEPTH
ART + 2 YEARS = SCIENCE
schemes and graphics architectures.
This diversity makes it tough for you
to create a program that will run on many
platforms. Unix has certainly become
the overwhelming standard in operating
systems at the low end of workstations,
although there are various flavors of
Unix, from IBM’s AIX to NeXT’s Mach
to Sun’s hybrid of System V and Berkeley
4.3. For real-time operations, such as
process-control graphics, there are spe¬
cial Unix versions, such as that from
Masscomp, and DEC’S VMS operating
system. Plain Unix is not well-regarded
for real-time work.
There are also standards that concern
graphics itself. For the past 5 years, the
de facto standard has been ANSI’s Color
Graphics Virtual Device Interface. You
could just write a program to call the
CGVDI circle command, cube com¬
mand, or whatever, and let the worksta¬
tion vendor worry about the interface be¬
tween the standard library of graphics
routines and the proprietary hardware.
CGI (a common abbreviation of CGVDI)
was a fairly simple two-dimensional
standard now being replaced by PHIGS.
PHIGS is also a two-dimensional stan¬
dard, but it’s more advanced and is hier¬
archical, which lets it call subroutines for
efficient code execution and size (see the
article “PHIGS: Programmer’s Hierar¬
chical Interactive Graphics Standard” by
Martin Plaehn in the November 1987
BYTE). It’s a programming base that a
graphics application can use: Make your
program call on PHIGS graphics primi¬
tives, and it will run on any workstation
supporting PHIGS (most do). PHIGS +
and PHIGS + + are proposed extensions
that include curved surface, shading,
lighting, depth cueing, and other three-
dimensional paraphernalia. However,
PHIGS does not come with windowing
tools.
Another device-independent graphics
standard is X Windows. Like PHIGS,
it’s a set of routines that an application
program can call on. But X Windows
allows for distributed graphics: An in¬
tensive calculation application can run on
a high-powered server and display the
results in a window on a personal work¬
station. It’s a toolkit for implementing
window systems and displaying two-
dimensional graphics. X Windows does
not include three-dimensional abilities.
An adjunct group to the X Consortium
(that came up with X Windows) is work¬
ing on PEX (PHIGS Extensions to X
Windows), which would merge PHIGS +
with X Windows. This would use X Win¬
dows to manage the window environment
and PHIGS -I- to render the graphics.
Two other possible standards of inter¬
est to personal computer users are the
HOOPS graphics library from Ithaca
Software and Display PostScript from
Adobe. HOOPS is an object-oriented set
of routines that has been implemented on
a number of personal-computer prod¬
ucts, including a transputer-based IBM
PC plug-in board from Nth Graphics.
Display PostScript has been used by the
NeXT workstation and has a direct rela¬
tionship to the PostScript that is in so
many laser printers, but it hasn’t made a
dent in workstation graphics software.
There are also proprietary standards,
such as Apollo’s three-dimensional
Graphics Metafile Resource File, Hew¬
lett-Packard’s Starbase, and Silicon
Graphics’ Library. IBM, which has not
had much success with its own RT work¬
station, recently licensed SGI’s library
and graphics accelerator chip for use in
its own workstations.
Database Design and File Formats
Another important subject in graphics
work is the structure of the databases that
comprise graphics images, and the files
used to transport them among different
applications and workstations. Although
flat files and relational databases were
once used, these are being challenged by
object-oriented databases. An OODB
stores an image as objects with proper¬
ties. This makes the translation from ap¬
plication to screen display less complex.
It also suits the graphics application code
to object-oriented languages such as
Smalltalk and C + + , with their atten¬
dant extensibility, reusability, and proto¬
typing ease during programming.
For capturing and transferring graph¬
ics, the latest proposed standards are
Computer Graphics Metafile and Ren-
derMan. CGM allows you to take a pic¬
ture file from one system and run it on
another. RenderMan is newer and not as
well-established, but it includes more
sophisticated information on the three-
dimensional aspects of an image.
The Roster of Players
There are a lot of players in the worksta¬
tions game and a lot of applications (see
the text box “Putting Workstations to
Work” on page 257). Because worksta¬
tions have windowing systems and some
ability to handle monochrome two-
dimensional graphics on large displays,
all could be considered graphics power¬
houses next to the average personal com¬
puter. However, some workstations rise
above the rest because of special graph¬
ics hardware built in or available as an
option within the personal-workstation
price range.
• Silicon Graphics. The most likely win¬
ner this year of a “Heisman trophy” in
workstation graphics is the Personal Iris
from Silicon Graphics. Begun in the
early 1980s by a Stanford professor, Sili¬
con Graphics has specialized in applying
PC voice mail, now only $199.
Watson®, hailed by one call 1 (800) 6-WATSON (in Mass., (508)
-iJAYES® \ reviewer as “the premier 651-2186). To order, call 1 (800) 533-6120
f OWfiMTiBlf I voice mai* station” at $498, (in Mass., (508) 655-6066).
iirffeui 1 is 30 even better value at Credit Cards Accepted.
MUl/why $199 Watson eliminates
' telephone tag and gives you m
big-system features like auto speed-dial, auto W a^^®
answer, message forwarding, and built-in 300/
1200 bps modem. For an ear-opening
business applications demo,
Watson
Natural Microsystems Corporation
262 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 169 on Reader Service Card
IN DEPTH
ART + 2 YEARS = SCIENCE
VLSI and its own optimized library of
graphics routines to three-dimensional
graphics.
The Geometry Engine VLSI chips that
made its Iris workstation a hit at the mid¬
range and high end of the market for ani¬
mation, simulation, medical imaging,
and mechanical design CAD are now
built into the less expandable— and far
less expensive— Personal Iris. For just
under $17,000, you can buy a Personal
Iris diskless system with a 10-MIPS CPU
(the R2000A RISC processor from
MIPS Computer), 8 megabytes of RAM,
8 bit planes for color, 2 bit planes for
menus, 2 bit planes for systems adminis¬
tration (all using VRAMs), and a Geom¬
etry Engine.
The system can drive a 19-inch, 1280-
by 1024-pixel color display with real¬
time animation of 10 frames per second,
performing 200 calculations every sec¬
ond for every pixel on the screen. Expan¬
sion to 24 bit planes for color, 8 system
bit planes, 155 megabytes of hard disk,
and a 24-bit z-buffer runs the price up to
nearly $30,000. That’s still far less than
the bottom price of the mid-range Iris
4D70 (at $44,000) or a competing three-
dimensional workstation such as the
Sun-4/260, Apollo 590 Turbo, or HP
360SRX Turbo— all mid-range worksta¬
tions. Lighting, specular highlights, and
scan conversion are built into the acceler¬
ator hardware of the Geometry Engine,
which can pump out 85,000 three-
dimensional vectors per second. The
Personal Iris supports PHIGS.
• Hewlett-Packard. HP has a variety of
personal workstations for two-dimen¬
sional graphics, and mid-range systems
for three-dimensional work. The newest
personal-workstation system is the HP
9000 Model 340 series, based on the
68030 CPU and 68882 FPU. The 340s
have at least 4 megabytes of RAM and
HP-UX Unix, and they support X Win¬
dows and PHIGS.
The lowest-price unit in the 340 series,
at just above $5000, is the 340M, a 1024-
by 768-pixel monochrome system for
mechanical design and drafting. The
340C-I- is a nearly $9000, 6-bit-plane
color, 10 24- by 768-pixel, two-dimen¬
sional system with hardware support for
vector and polygon drawing and fills.
The 340CH is an $11,000, 8-bit-plane
color, two-dimensional system that starts
from the 340CH- base.
The $16,000 340CHX is a CH model
with a plug-in, integer-based graphics
accelerator (with a 68020 processor) that
can double display-processing perfor¬
mance-taking charge of the transform
and clipping calculations.
Hewlett-Packard uses a “strip z-buf-
fer” that takes advantage of unused
memory in the mainframe-buffer area
(the typical resolution of displays doesn’t
match exactly with the size of standard
memory chips and chip sets). This saves
money on memory for a small expense
on increased memory-controller over¬
head. The systems all come with an HP-
HIL interface (HP Human Interface
Loop) that can daisy-chain input devices
such as mice, knob-boxes (a suite of dials
that can be turned to, for instance,
change each of the rotations and posi¬
tions of a three-dimensional simulated
object), tablets, and so on. The 340SRX
incorporates silicon assists for solids-
rendering work, such as light sources,
Gouraud shading, and transparency. The
340 series is not as expandable as the 360
and 370 series (also 68030-based) mid¬
range workstations, but it is more ex¬
pandable than the 3 1 8 and 3 1 9 families it
replaces. It is object-code-compatible
with the other HP 9000 Series 300
workstations.
• Apollo. The 68020-based Series 3000
is Apollo’s lowest-priced workstation,
with an estimated CPU performance of
1.5 MIPS. Above that are the Series
3500 and Series 4500. The 3500s have a
68020 and boast a performance of 4
MIPS. The 4500s have a 68030 and a
68882 FPU for a performance of approx¬
imately 7 MIPS. You can get the 4500
with 15- or 19-inch monitors, in 1280- by
1024-pixel monochrome, 1024- by 800-
pixel, 8-bit-plane color, or 1280- by
1024-pixel 8-bit-plane color. The 3500
adds a 1024- by 800-pixel monochrome
option to that list.
All these systems are aimed at two-
dimensional and three-dimensional
wire-frame applications. The 3000 does
not contain special graphics accelerators
other than bit-blit assist in hardware (es¬
sential for windows and polygon fills).
Instead, it depends on general floating¬
point performance and an optimized li¬
brary of graphics routines for graphics
speed. A Weitek 3164 FPU option is
available for each system. The 3500 and
4500 have a dedicated graphics processor
for accelerating the drawing of two-
dimensional primitives.
The systems run under Unix and sup¬
port PHIGS, X Windows, and Apollo’s
own three-dimensional Graphics Meta¬
file Resource File library. All of Apol¬
lo’s graphics workstations, including its
mid-range and high-end Turbo Domain
systems, are binary-compatible— mean¬
ing a single program can run on any of
them without even a recompilation, using
whatever graphics abilities are available.
While you can get a Series 3000 mono¬
chrome, diskless node for around $5000,
a 3500 color system without disk runs
just over $12,000. The 4500 systems
start at $19,000 (diskless, monochrome)
and rise to $35,000 and higher (color,
348-megabyte disk drive). The mid¬
range and high-end Apollo workstations
include up to 24 bit planes for graphics
and hardware assist for three-dimension¬
al algorithms.
• Digital Equipment Corp. DEC offers
three personal workstations for graph¬
ics: the VAXstation 2000, the VAXsta-
tion IIGPX, and the VAXstation 3200.
The 2000 comes in monochrome and
color versions, beginning at just over
$5000 and just under $8000, respective¬
ly. The 2000 is built around DEC’S own
Micro VAX II chip set with its own FPU,
4 megabytes of RAM, and 1024- by 864-
pixel display resolution. The mono¬
chrome system has a single bit plane; the
color system has 4 bit planes. Eight-bit-
plane color models are available and cost
$13,000 to $18,000. The graphics chips
in the VAXstation 2000 are the same as
in the VAXstation IIGPX. GPX prices
begin at just under $20,000. This work¬
station is larger, with more memory and
disk capacity than the VAXstation 2000.
A diskless, 8-bit-plane color system runs
nearly $23,000. Both the 2000 and the
IIGPX are built around the Micro VAX II
engine.
The VAXstation 3200 uses a CMOS
version of the Micro VAX II engine and
FPU, along with a dual-cache memory,
and so is much faster on all system mea¬
surements. A color 3200 system starts at
$29,000 and comes with special graphics
coprocessors from DEC. These GPX co¬
processors perform bit-blit, scaling,
clipping, fill, and scrolling operations in
hardware. Support for PHIGS and X
Windows is included.
On the high end, DEC has developed
the VAXstation 8000 three-dimensional
real-time graphics workstation with
Evans & Sutherland (famous for its
flight simulators and other high-end
graphics computers). The Evans & Suth¬
erland graphics engine in the 8000 han¬
dles 24 bit planes double-buffered with
Gouraud and Phong shading and up to 16
light sources.
• Sun Microsystems. Sun has three dif¬
ferent architectures for personal work¬
stations, from the 80386-based 386i to
the 68020-based Sun-3 and the SPARC
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 263
\ N DEPTH
ART -H 2 YEARS = SCIENCE
RISC -chip based Sun-4, The 3/50 is the
lowest-priced unit, at about $5000 for a
diskless, monochrome system with 1 1 52-
by 900-pixel resolution. The lowest-
priced color system is the 3/60 with
1152- by 900-pixel resolution for gray
scale or color, and an option of 1600 by
1280 pixels for high -resolution mono¬
chrome. These systems are aimed at two-
dimensional applications, such as me¬
chanical CAD, CASE, and publishing.
The 3861 can produce 1152- by 900-
pixel monochrome or 1024- by 768-pixel
color. These systems support PHIGS and
X Windows, but they have little in the
way of hardware acceleration for graph¬
ics. Above these machines are the 4/1 10
and the 4/150, which cost $20,000 and
more. The 4/1 10TC includes a graphics
option with 24 bit planes for color.
In the mid-range systems. Sun offers a
CXP graphics accelerator option. At the
high end, there's the TAAC image-pro¬
cessing option that has hardware for ma¬
nipulating entire images— such as con¬
verting a series of CAT-scan images of a
heart into a simulation of the heart beat¬
ing. The TAAC boards alone cost about
$30,000,
* Tektronix, The 4319 is the entry-level
workstation from Tektronix, with a
68020, 68881 FPU, X Windows, and
1280- by 1024-pixel resolution. It comes
with Tektronix' own Color=Cache chip
for bit-blit in hardware, and it can handle
up to 8 bit planes for color. The 4320
series of workstations, from the $23,000
4324 to the $27,000 4325, is aimed at
two-dimensional applications and is also
built around a 68020 and 68881. Resolu¬
tions of 1024 by 768 and 1280 by 1024
pixels come from a separate 68020 dedi¬
cated to graphics and a special bit- si ice
processor accelerator.
The Tektronix 4330 family is a three-
dimensional, mid-range series of work¬
stations (from $37,000 to $52,000) with
a fascinating graphics capability: stereo¬
graphic viewing. These workstations
boast 24 bit planes for color, z-buffers,
and double-buffering, as well as the sep¬
arate 68020 and accelerator chips for
graphics you find in the 4320 series.
Depth cueing is built into the standard
display, and an optional system that al¬
ternately displays left-eye and right-eye
views produces three-dimensional
images when you look through special
polarized glasses. Any three-dimensional
application that supports Tektronix
three-dimensional terminals and work¬
stations can run in the stereo mode.
• Others. There are lots of other work¬
station makers with impressive graphics,
IBM and NeXT haven't sprung unusual
graphics hardware on the public, but they
have recently put impetus behind Display
PostScript (in the NeXT workstation)
and NeXT's NextStep application envi¬
ronment (which IBM has licensed).
Intergraph makes a variety of worksta¬
tions, including some new mid-range
systems with multiple megapixel dis¬
plays. And there are graphics terminals
that can unload some of the work from
workstations— such as the Seiko GR4400
that has hardware for Phong shading and
the GX4000 from Raster Technologies
that supports PHIGS and PHIGS + with
a parallel-processor architecture. If you
can spend more, you'll find systems such
as Apollo's Series 10000 that can use 40
or 80 bit planes with z-buffers, double-
buffering, and 4 processors to make as
many as 600,000 polygons per second.
Capabilities Up, Prices Down
There are two clear indicators to what
you'll be seeing in personal-workstation
graphics next year and the year after
that. First, look at the mid-range sys¬
tems: z-buffers, depth cueing, shading in
hardware, and the like. Resolution prob¬
ably won't climb much, but three-dimen¬
sional systems will certainly follow the
Personal Iris into lower prices. Perhaps
Tektronix' Stereoscopic Display will
catch on.
The other indicator comes from the
arts. According to John Metcalfe, the di¬
rector of marketing for entry-level sys¬
tems at Silicon Graphics, 'The anima¬
tion industry drives us. They want to see
real life on a workstation— and that
drives us from a technical point of view.
About 2 years later, the mechanical-
design people decide they want that same
stuff, even though if you had asked them
what they wanted before, they probably
wouldn't have mentioned it. ” m
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Special thanks to Roger Jo I Us of Hewlett-
Packard for his help in explaining shad¬
ing techniques to me.
Phillip Robinson is an editor for Virtual
Information (Sausalito, CA), where he
researches and analyzes trends in the
computer and workstation markets. He is
a contributing editor for BYTE and can
be contacted on BIX as "robins on. ”
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264 BYTE * FEBRUARY I9S 9
Circle 126 on Reader Service Card
IN DEPTH
PERSONAL WORKSTATIONS
Networking
with Unix
RFS and NFS provide the key
to distributed file systems
Greg Comeau
If you own a Unix work¬
station, chances are at
some point you will
want to network your
machine to other computers
so you can access their files
and resources. Sun Microsys¬
tems' Network File System
(NFS) and AT&T's Remote
File System (RFS) allow you
to do just that. These file-sys¬
tem arrangements, however,
go about their business in
very different ways.
To understand their strate¬
gies, you should first under¬
stand a few points about
Unix. A typical Unix work¬
station takes advantage of a
hard disk's cylindrical layout
and zones specific contiguous
cylinders into file systems.
For instance, most Unix
machines contain at least two
file systems; one system that
contains the Unix environ¬
ment, and another that con¬
tains user files and programs. Other
Unix machines contain local file systems
as well. Since each file system usually
contains a directory structure (which
consists of directories, files, and de¬
vices), they are handy for structuring
your disk into unique and specific areas
suited to your needs,
Unix adheres to hierarchical file sys¬
tems, which many users are familiar
with. Note, however, that a reference to a
path, such as /usr/ comeau/ dir, could
have many variations under Unix be¬
cause the operating system is based on
the concept of a root file system. In other
words, the root file system is your sys¬
tem’s main file system. All subsequent
file systems— for example, /usr— must
be mounted atop the root file system.
Unix does this by overlaying a file sys¬
tem hierarchy structure onto
an existing directory. The di¬
rectory may or may not be
empty. Therefore, access to a
path such as /usr/ comeau
happens transparently with¬
out the person or process who
is actually accessing the path
knowing that usr is just a
logic connection to / .
Th is di ffers f rom other sys¬
tems, since each system ad¬
ministrator has the power to
mount any unmounted file
systems onto any directory
that exists on a currently
mounted file system.
This setup works out nicely
for several reasons:
* Your machine need not be
concerned with file systems
that contain projects not cur¬
rently being used,
* Introducing a file system is
as simple as mounting it.
* You can access all mounted
file systems transparently because they
adhere to the directory structure. (For
example, you can mount usr on / to ob¬
tain / usr.)
* Since file systems are constrained to
cylinders on a disk, you can easily add
file systems from different physical disk
drives on the same machine to the cur¬
rent file-system state,
continued
ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT TINNEY © 1989
FEBRUARY 1 989 “BYTE 265
IN DEPTH
NETWORKING WITH UNIX
Although this all works reasonably,
unfortunately it locks you into accessing
file systems located on the machine you
are logged onto. You can access remote
machines via file-copy protocols, usu¬
ally the Unix-to-Unix copy program
uucp, but this can be awkward.
RFS and NFS let you transparently
connect the file systems of one computer
to the file systems of another. They en¬
able your Unix machine to use the file
system of another Unix machine so natu¬
rally that you may not always realize that
you are using another computer’s re¬
sources.
How RFS Works
RFS ensures that all network transac¬
tions adhere to Unix I/O semantics. In
other words, open(), close(), un¬
link ( ) , and so on, and even ioctl( ) all
behave so rationally that files are always
left in manageable states.
The transparency is so strong that reli¬
ability, security, and even simultaneous
access to files all occur as if on one Unix
machine. Of course, this implies cor¬
rectly that RFS was intended to be used
only for communicating with other Unix
systems.
RFS functions depend on a machine
supporting a transport provider. The TP
ensures that there is a physical network
along with the appropriate software to
drive the hardware of the network. The
hardware is typically Ethernet, System
Network Architecture, or StarLAN. The
software is broken down into two soft¬
ware layers to handle the network
protocols.
The software subsystem works by
using an I/O facility called Streams.
With Streams, you can connect to one of
several network protocols (i.e., Trans¬
mission Control Protocol/Internet Proto¬
col, Ethernet, and so on) for your inter¬
machine communications needs. The
end result: RFS is network-independent.
That is, since it can be independently
configured regardless of the underlying
hardware, it need not be pinned down to
a specific protocol, vendor, or machine.
Streams accomplishes this via han¬
dlers, each of which is a different layered
protocol in software. Each handler usu¬
ally interacts directly with the hardware
and converts the real protocols into a
common format so that the higher lay¬
ered protocol handlers (the ones Unix
would interface with directly) all map
into a common protocol.
The RFS scheme consists of client and
server machines living within a domain.
Machines within a domain that advertise
their file systems for other machines in
the domain to use are called server ma¬
chines. (For a glossary of basic terms,
see the text box “The Nomenclature of
Networking” on page 269.) Machines
that use the advertised file systems by
mounting them are called clients. Since a
server can choose to use a file system of
another machine, some machines will be
both servers and clients.
Furthermore, one machine in the do¬
main is chosen by the domain’s system
administrator as the primary server. It
maintains various lists. The most impor¬
tant of these is the list of directories,
files, and even devices that were adver¬
tised for network usage. Other lists help
maintain network security. Among other
abilities, these security lists can restrict
specific machines to a given network re¬
source, as well as specific groups or user
IDs.
Generally, once these files are set up
across all the machines in a given do¬
main, each machine advertises what it
has to offer as it boots up, as well as
mounting resources it needs from other
machines. This results in very little net¬
work maintenance once the distribution
directories and files for each machine
have been determined. Besides its adher¬
ence to the Unix I/O semantics, this is
another reason why RFS is so trans¬
parent.
Good Points and Bad
One problem with the RFS scheme is that
the state of the network is more fragile
since it enforces the Unix I/O semantics.
Because of this, if the primary-domain
server fails, the secondary-domain
servers, chosen by the domain’s system
administrator, temporarily assume the
primary server’s responsibilities until it
is restored and rebooted.
Interestingly, this doesn’t particularly
affect the network, since machines cur¬
rently in the network have already adver¬
tised their resources and mounted those
that they needed; therefore, current
mount points will not be broken. How¬
ever, it does affect any machines in the
domain that have been booted in the
interim.
Since RFS ensures Unix I/O seman¬
tics, users and programs can make direc¬
tories, files, devices, and named pipes
across the network without concern for
where those entities really are. The lack
of concern results from the ability to al¬
ways have a consistent view of a file. In
other words, database accesses and file
locking perform as you would expect
from a single machine. This is nice,
since Unix should act like Unix whether
or not it is connected to a network.
Furthermore, because security en¬
forcement is at a machine, group, user,
and Unix level, network security is never
at a disadvantage because of RFS. One
indirect problem of this, though, is that
machine administrators choose to adver¬
tise all the file systems of their machines
to all the clients of the domain, and users
may be given the chance to read or write
files they shouldn’t have access to. This
is strictly an administration concern,
though, since the default choice is that a
given file system or entities within a
server will not be shared.
All this consistency has a price. Be¬
cause of it, the network has the potential
for more traffic, resulting in a loss of
performance and more bottlenecks.
At first glance, the ability to selec¬
tively mount remote file systems within
selected directories on a given client
seems rather powerful. Looking at this
in detail, you see that each machine has
its own different view of the network.
This may be fine for a given machine,
but if you or your programs are relying
on a consistent directory tree or on access
to a specific path name, these different
views can become confusing and error-
prone in some situations.
What Makes NFS Tick?
NFS’s general setup is similar to that of
RFS. A few differences, however, point
out their distinct tactics. Although they
both hinge on the ability to treat a remote
file system as being local, they do so in
different ways. Mainly, NFS is not a net¬
work extension of Unix and therefore
does not attempt to adhere to Unix se¬
mantics. In fact, it takes this difference
one step further and allows other non-
Sun and non-Unix operating systems to
use it. Since the protocols for NFS are in
the public domain, some vendors have
endorsed its use, and Sun even developed
a Unix-to-MS-DOS network connection
called PC-NFS.
Even with these differences, the inter¬
nal makeup of NFS is not unlike RFS
when it comes to network accessibility .
An advertising mechanism for servers
and a mounting ability for clients still
exists. Also, instead of the network lay¬
ering associated with Streams, NFS has
substitute mechanisms called Remote
Procedure Calls (RPC) and External
Data Representation (XDR).
Since remote file systems need only
appear to be real Unix file systems, NFS
implements a Virtual File System mech¬
anism. For instance, the Unix file sys¬
tem usually accesses files through an
operating-system disk handle called an
inode. Since the remote file system being
266 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
IN DEPTH
NETWORKING WITH UNIX
The Nomenclature
of Networking
Here’s a glossary of basic network¬
ing terminology to help you under¬
stand the Network File System (NFS)
and the Remote File System (RFS)
schemes:
* Networking address or node name.
The unique name of a machine in the
network.
* Resource. A file, directory, subdirec¬
tory. device, or logical pointer to them,
* Client. A machine that requires ac¬
cess to the network to obtain resources
of other machines.
* Server. A machine that donates its re¬
sources to the network,
* Primary server, The network master,
responsible for maintaining the node
names and resource identifiers of the
machines in its domain. Clients com¬
municate with the server to advertise
their resources to the domain or to
query it for a resource of the domain,
* Domain. The network area controlled
by the primary server. Under RFS. a
domain serves many purposes, It allows
easy access to the domain via a pre-
determined name: controls security via
a domain member list; allows clients in
the domain to contact other clients di¬
rectly; and allows clients to contact
other domains.
* Distributed file system. A file system
logically connected from various physi¬
cal machines,
* Homogeneous network. A distributed
network that requires a specific ven¬
dor's proprietary hardware and soft*
ware. Such networks cannot usually
communicate with another vendor’s
hardware,
■ Heterogeneous network. A distributed
network that can communicate with un¬
related hardware by different vendors,
usually via de facto protocols and hard¬
ware standards.
accessed doesn't need to use the Unix
file-system structure, NFS uses VFS to
construct a vnode, a virtual inode. As
long as VFS can do this, NFS can exist as
a machine- and operating -system- inde¬
pendent application,
VFS is smart enough to determine if a
request is from the local machine and
will resort to using standard file-system
operations in that case. When the request
is remote, it will issue RPCs, An RPC
can be thought of as a cl ient process issu¬
ing a procedure call to a server process
just as if the procedure call had occurred
on the client machine. Under this sce¬
nario, a client calls a local procedure to
issue a network request or data transfer,
A message is sent to the server in re¬
sponse to the cl ient procedure call, upon
which the server runs whatever proce¬
dures it needs to fulfill the request and
then returns to the client's local proce¬
dure call with the answer.
An RPC request, which uses X DR in¬
ternally, transfers data and messages.
Because of the diversity of machines and
their CPU architectures, XDR is a com¬
mon machine-independent protocol to be
used at the lowest layer of NFS. This
means that data structures used by your
programs— whether they are base types
or types derived from the base types
from any machine— can be transparently
described, transmitted, and converted to
more than one machine. All this can be
done regardless of machine architecture.
The combination of RPC and XDR pro¬
vides the equivalent of the standard I/O
(stdio) library package that is com¬
monly found in C programming environ¬
ments.
The network address list and advertis¬
ing list, such as those found on the pri¬
mary domain server under RFS, are
found through the Yellow Pages. The
Yellow Pages is simply a read-only data¬
base for NFS,
Pros and Cons
NFS has major concurrency problems
because it isn't a Unix network exten¬
sion. This also means NFS doesn't sup¬
port all Unix file-system operations,
can't obtain access to remote devices,
can’t support file locking, and can't sup¬
port file-append operations.
These problems, however, do have
their benefits. To begin with, NFS need
not be used only for machines supporting
Unix file systems. Therefore, it’s both
machine and operating-system indepen¬
dent. Second, because NFS and its un¬
derlying protocols {VFS, RPC, and
XDR) are in the public domain, imple¬
mentations on diverse hardware and op¬
erating systems should take place.
Also, because of the lack of knowl¬
edge about remote clients and servers,
NFS remains stateless. You can view this
as advantageous, because NFS doesn'i
need to keep track of pasL resource re¬
quests, such as files opened by clients.
Cleaner network traffic results, as well
as better network performance, because
NFS can perform block read -a heads and
block write-behinds. Furthermore, if the
network fails, error recovery is much
simpler than in RFS. Currently, NFS
also supports the concept of a diskless
workstation.
Diskless workstations have potential.
A typical local-area network could con¬
tain many smaller systems, each contain¬
ing smaller and slower disks. Taking ad¬
vantage of the hardware on another
machine, even to the extent of making a
diem completely diskless, is smart from
the standpoint of economy as well as per¬
formance. In the latter case, the diskless
workstation might take advantage of an
extremely fast and large disk on the
server. This scenario would come in
handy in a typical database application.
As in RFS, the default situation for
NFS is that file systems and files should
not be shared. This creates more admin¬
istrative work and could limit transpar¬
ency under many networks. For this rea¬
son. many servers choose to make their
file systems available all the time,
A Feasible Choice
Networks arc great for allowing smaller
or even diskless workstations access to
larger and more efficient resources.
These resources usually include access¬
ing remote file-system files, but they can
also involve resources such as primers,
floppy disks, program spoolers, .or pro¬
gram documentation.
Both NFS and RFS are feasible
choices for creating a shared Unix work¬
station environment, and they are capa¬
ble of coexisting asde facto standards, in
fact, with the recent joint ventures be¬
tween AT&T and Sun Microsystems,
NFS and RFS may someday reside on the
same machine or network. Notwith¬
standing this, both are powerful and
f lexible options. Because of their trans¬
parency to users, shell scripts, and pro-
g ru ms, t hey can p ro v i de e c onom ic a 1 net¬
works regardless of hardware vendor
constraints. ■
Greg Cornea u is CEO of Comean Com¬
puting, an independent software devel¬
opment and consulting firm specializing
In Unix t CT and C+ + programming
tools. He can be reached on BIX as
u cornea u. ”
FEBRUARY 1989 - BYTE 267
Those fantastic Byte covers — and boy,
do they look great on this stylish, % sleeve
T-shirt from Robert Tinney Graphics!
The colored sleeves and neckline vividly
complement the full-color design.
And don’t mistake this for a rubbery
patch that cracks and peels off after
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I are silk-screened into the fabric,
I resulting in a beautiful, full-color
| image that lasts!
You’ll also appreciate the shirt itself:
a heavyweight cotton/polyester blend
which combines tough washability with
the cool, soft comfort of cotton. Each
HR Byte T-shirt is priced at only $1 2.50
HF ($11. 50 each for 3 or more). Be sure to
H include shirt size: C
„e«ec«ons HI
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#77
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XL — (46-48). Most orders shipped
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TWO NEW
DESIGNS!
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Send the following T-shirts(s) at $12.50 each, or $11.50 each for 3 or
more. \ have included $2 for shipping & handling ($5 overseas).
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268 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Word Processor
Programmable
Hardware
#A Intelligent $90
Reflections
#B Storage Space $55
#D
Number Crunching $55
Technological
Breakthrough
# F Human Dimensions $55
Chips
Note
i
You’ve seen them on the pages of Byte
— now enjoy these delightful images as
stunning limited edition prints! Each ex¬
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edition strictly limited to only 1000 prints.
The museum-quality paper is an acid-
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The artist, Robert Tinney, personally
inspects, signs and numbers each individ¬
ual print. Accompanying the print is a Cer¬
tificate of Authenticity (also signed and
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The price of each print depends on the
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■RBISK
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 269
IN DEPTH
Acer Counterpoint, Inc,
(408) 434-0190
Inquiry 1015.
Acer Technologies Corp.
(408) 922-0333
Inquiry 1016.
Advanced Logic Research, Inc.
(714)581-6770
Inquiry 1017.
A.l.C. Computers, Inc,
(416) 492-2777
Inquiry 1018.
Alpha Microsystems
(714) 957-8500
Inquiry 1019*
Altos Computer Systems
(408) 946-6700
Inquiry 1020.
Amdek Corp,
(800) 722-6335
(408) 922-5700
Inquiry 861.
American Mitac Corp.
(408) 432-1160
Inquiry 862.
Apollo Computer* Inc,
(508) 256-6600
Inquiry 983.
Apple Computer. Inc,
(408) 996-1010
Inquiry 992*
AST Research* Inc.
(714)863-1333
Inquiry 1000.
AT&T Information Systems
(800)247-1212
Inquiry 863.
Bee term
(418) 835-1 55 J
Inquiry 864.
Compusource International
Corp,
(305)251-1188
Inquiry 865.
Computer Systems
(313) 779-8700
Inquiry 866,
Datamedia Corp.
(603) 886-1570
Inquiry 867.
PERSONAL WORKSTATIONS
The Players
Dell Computer Corp.
(512)338-4400
Inquiry 868.
DEST Corp. Florida
(407) 994-3720
Inquiry 869.
Digital Electronic Systems
(305) 572-3338
Inquiry 870.
Digital Equipment Corp.
(508) 897-5111
Inquiry 871.
Elco
(818)284-3281
Inquiry 872.
Everex Systems, Inc.
(415)498-1111
Inquiry 873.
Fortron Corp.
(408)432-1191
Inquiry 874.
Franklin Telecom
(805) 373-8688
Inquiry 875.
Gul (stream Micro Systems,
Inc.
(DEST Corp, Florida)
(407) 994-3720
Inquiry 876.
Hertz Computer Corp.
(212)684-4141
Inquiry 877.
Hewlett-Packard
(415)857-1501
Inquiry 878,
Honeywell Bull
(617)895-6000
Inquiry 879.
IBM Corp.
(914) 765-1900
Inquiry 880.
Icon International* Inc.
(801)225-6888
Inquiry 881.
IndTech, Inc.
(408) 743-4300
Inquiry 882,
Kowin Computer Corp.
(213) 721-5500
Inquiry 883*
Logic Process Corp,
(214) 340-5172
Inquiry 884.
MAD Intelligent Systems, Inc,
(408) 943-1711
Inquiry 885,
MAI Basic Four, Inc.
(800) 854-3194
(714) 731-5100
Inquiry 886.
Masscomp
(508) 692-6200
Inquiry 887.
Megadata Corp.
(516) 589-6800
Inquiry 888.
Micro Display Systems* Inc.
(408) 743-4300
Inquiry 889.
NBLInc,
(303) 444-57 IQ
Inquiry 890*
NCR Corp,
(513)445-7478
Inquiry 891*
NEC Home Electronics (USA),
Inc,
(800) 632-7638
(312) 860-9500
Inquiry 1007,
NeXT, Inc.
(415) 424-0200
Inquiry 984.
Northgate Computer Systems
(800)548-1993
(612) 553-0111
Inquiry 892,
Ogivar Technologies, Inc.
(514) 737-3340
Inquiry 893,
Olivetti USA
(201) 526-8200
Inquiry 894.
Pindar Computer Corp.
(703) 790-0555
Inquiry 895.
Profit Technology
(800) 223-4628
(212) 809-3500
Inquiry 896.
Rexon Business Machines
Corp.
(213) 641-71 10
Inquiry 897.
SCI/Fortune Systems Corp.
(415) 593-9000
Inquiry 898.
SCI Systems, Inc.
(205) 882-4800
Inquiry 899.
Silicon Graphics, Inc.
(415) 960-1980
Inquiry 985.
Sophos Integrated Systems
(301)292-5585
Inquiry 900.
Spectrix Microsystems, Inc.
(416) 474-1955
Inquiry 966*
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
(415)960-1330
Inquiry 986.
Symbolics, Inc.
(617) 221-1000
(617)621-7500
Inquiry 967.
Tandem Computers* Inc.
(408) 725-6000
Inquiry 968*
Tandon Computer Corp,
(805) 523-0340
Inquiry 1049*
Tandy Corp.
(817)390-3011
Inquiry 969*
Tektronix* Inc.
(503)627-7111
Inquiry 970.
TeleVideo Systems, Inc,
(408) 745-7760
Inquiry 971*
270 BYTE - FEBRUARY 1989
Texas Instruments, Inc.
(800) 527-3500
(2M) 995-2011
Inquiry 972,
Third Coast Technologies, Inc.
(414) 272-4220
Inquiry 973-
Uni sys Corp.
(313) 972-7000
Inquiry 974,
Unitronix Corp,
(800) 257-7482
(201) 981-1600
Inquiry 975.
VG Systems, Inc,
(818)346-3410
Inquiry 976.
Wang Laboratories, Inc,
(508) 459-5000
Inquiry 977.
Workstations Products
and Services
(212)685-6996
Inquiry 978.
WYSE Technology
(408) 433-1000
Inquiry 979.
Xerox Corp.
(800) 832-6979
Inquiry 980.
Xmark Corp.
(714) 556-9210
Inquiry 1046.
XYZTEK Corp.
(303) 850-9400
Inquiry 1047,
Zenith Data Systems
(800) 842-9000
(312)699-4800
Inquiry 1048.
BBS SYSOPS
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FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 271
We make a super VGA monitor
NEC introduces the best VGA monitor you can
buy. MultiSync"1 2A.
The first monitor that takes our award-win¬
ning multiple frequency technology and cus¬
tomizes it to the needs of the VGA user.
MultiSync 2A is both affordable and uncompromised. And
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brilliantly. But what's equally important, it allows you to move
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a tilt-swivel base, for nearly 30% more viewing area than stan¬
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MultiSync 2A. One super VGA monitor.
VGA Tnirtffl ,r,»v.n Hi 32U * 2«i
CsC
Compeers an<j Communications
272 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
that’s also a SuperVGA monitor.
But that’s only part of the story. NEC also
introduces the best SuperVGA monitor you can
buy. MultiSync' 2A.
The first monitor that takes our award-win¬
ning multiple frequency technology and customizes it to the needs
of the SuperVGA user. MultiSync 2A senses the software you’re us¬
ing and makes the switch from a VGA monitor to SuperVGA, the
new standard developed by NEC and recognized by VESA, the Video
Electronics Standards Association. SuperVGA delivers a maximum
resolution of 800 x BOO, which is 56% higher than VGA.
And since you're most likely buying a board that goes beyond VGA,
your monitor should too. For literature call 1-800-826-2255. For techni¬
cal details call NEC Home Electronics (USA) Inc. at 1-800-FONE-NEC.
Uulrisi^e * * WM fcf C tlW* f retiwci 4 Tl
Mill '
MultiSync 2 A. One SuperVGA monitor.
J "949 h£C h:~« L'cci-c- L ■ ' JS*i --
NEC
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 273
FEATURE
Digital Paper
A new breed ofwrite-once optical media that can store up to
a gigabyte of data on floppy disk-size cartridges with hard disk speeds
Dick Pountain
hree or four years ago, during the first euphoria
that accompanies a new technology, it was
widely predicted that optical storage media
with gigabyte capacities would soon oust mag¬
netic storage from the computer industry. Now
that the dust has settled and various optical products are being
shipped, things look rather different. It seems more likely that
optical storage devices will coexist with magnetic for some time
to come, having found a niche as a medium for long-term archi¬
val storage and backup, while magnetic hard disks remain the
preferred form of temporary working storage.
You can divide optical storage devices into three categories,
according to the permanence of the data they store: read-only
media; WORM (write once, read many times) media; and read-
write-erase media. The categories of media differ in the precise
way they write and read the stream of digital “dots" that have
been written onto the media.
Like phonograph records, read-only media such as audio
compact disks (CD) and computer CD-ROM disks have to be
prerecorded. They serve only as a means of distribution for
large volumes of data; you can neither write to the disks nor
erase the data they contain. With capacities of 500 to 600 mega¬
bytes, they can carry huge databases equivalent to a whole shelf
of books (like Microsoft’s Bookshelf) or hours of digitized
sound.
WORM media, which are finding increasing favor as archi¬
val storage devices, can be written with data once but never
erased. Since the typical capacity of a WORM disk cartridge is
200 to 300 megabytes, a single disk can hold weeks’ or months’
worth of data. When the disk fills, you just start a new one. For
many applications, such as legal work or accounting, the exis¬
tence of this unerasable “audit trail" is an advantage.
Finally, there is the full read-write-erase optical disk, long
available in research iabs but only now emerging commercially
in Steve Jobs’s NeXT computer (strictly speaking, the NeXT
disk is magneto-optical, because it combines magnetic and opti¬
cal technologies). In principle, such a disk can completely re¬
place a magnetic hard disk, as it does in the NeXT, though at
present, the retrieval performance is considerably slower than
the best hard disks.
The latest optical technology is digital paper, a write-once
optical storage medium. However, digital paper differs from
existing WORM media in that it is flexible and can be produced
in large sheets and reels (hence the fanciful name). As a result,
it can be cut, stamped, and otherwise built into a variety of
products, including floppy Bernoulli disks, tapes, and credit
cards. It promises to make smaller, faster, and cheaper WORM
drives as available as floppy disk drives are today.
Digital paper was developed by a British company called
Imagedata. Imagedata’s parent company, Imperial Chemical
Industries, is one of the world’s largest chemical combines. As
such, ICI has special expertise in polymer films and dyestuffs,
both of which were crucial in the development of digital paper.
Principles of Optical Media
To understand how digital paper works, you first have to under¬
stand the basic principles of optical data storage. I’ll briefly
recap the main ideas here, but you can find a fuller explanation
in the November 1985 BYTE article "CD-ROMs and Their
Kin" by Richard S. Shu ford.
All the various existing optical storage systems have this
much in common: To operate, they use the modulation of a
beam of laser light by reflection from a thin mirror-like layer of
metal applied to a transparent plastic substrate. By one means
or another, they all write a stream of digital dots onto this mir¬
ror layer. These dots can be read back by moving them under a
laser beam and measuring the intensity of the reflected beam.
It’s not the absolute intensity of the reflected beam that’s sig¬
nificant, but the transition between two different intensity
levels. The data rate you can achieve is determined by the read¬
ing mechanism's ability to discriminate such "edges." It is the
interval or mark/space ratio between edges that is used to en¬
code digital data— hence, each dot may encode more than one
continued
274 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
ILLUSTRATION: KIM BARNES/5RW © 1989
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 275
FEATURE
DIGITAL PAPER
bit of information (typically around 1.5 bits). The dots are so
tiny that enormous information density can be achieved. Pack¬
ing the dots so densely, however, leads to an unacceptably high
raw-error rate, requiring sophisticated error-correction tech¬
niques. On optical disks, anywhere between 10 percent and 33
percent of the stored information might be error-correction
code rather than user data.
In a read-only medium such as CD-ROM, the dots are tiny
pits that are mechanically formed into the plastic substrate by a
stamping process— just like the old phonograph-record-press¬
ing process. A mirror layer of aluminum is then vacuum-depos¬
ited over the pits. When the disk is rotated under a reading laser
beam, the edges of these pits cause a step in reflected intensity
that can be detected by the read head.
At the other end of the scale, the NeXT’s read- write-erase
disk has dots that are formed by a reversible process. This is
done by locally heating a tiny area of the mirror layer with a
laser beam and allowing it to cool in a magnetic field. If the
Figure 1 : Digital paper is a flexible optical recording medium
made from a “sandwich ” of thin polymer films. This cross
section shows the various functional layers and the
approximate dimensions.
Figure 2: Optical data is encoded on digital paper by burning
pits in the active dye /polymer layer. Here , x is a whole
number of half-wavelengths of the laser light , while y is not.
The pits alter the path length that light from the read laser
must traverse , thereby weakening the reflected beam.
temperature achieved by the heating exceeds the metal’s Curie
point, the metal will recrystallize in alignment with the mag¬
netic field direction.
This process subtly alters the surface properties of the area
and shifts the angle of polarization of a reflected laser beam (a
phenomenon known as the Kerr Effect). A polarizing filter in
the read head converts this shift into an intensity step. A dot
can be erased by reheating the area in a magnetic field of the
opposite polarity.
In between these extremes lie the write-once media like
WORM drives and digital paper, in which a laser is used to
make a permanent mark on the mirror layer. The most direct
method is to use a relatively high-powered laser beam to melt a
hole right through the mirror layer. This process is often called
an “ablative” method because it involves the irreversible re¬
moval or ablation of material rather than merely an alteration of
its properties. The holes reflect far less laser light than intact
mirror areas; thus, their edges produce a transition suitable for
encoding data. Other methods involve deforming or bubbling
the metal layer, or melting it so the layer’s reflectivity is altered
when it resolidifies.
Digital paper uses a write-once ablative technique, but it is
not the metal mirror layer that is ablated in this case. Instead,
the ablative pits are formed in a transparent layer immediately
above the mirror, and interference effects are used to read the
data.
Writing on Digital Paper
In essence, digital paper consists of a four-layer “sandwich” of
thin films (see figure 1). The substrate is made from one of
ICI’s established polyester films, called Melinex— a material
that provides the mechanical strength of the whole structure.
This substrate layer can be produced in thicknesses of 25 to 75
microns, depending on the requirement of the application.
A reflective layer of metal is deposited onto the substrate by a
process called “sputtering.” The result is a product that looks
just like the silver plastic foil that children’s balloons are made
of nowadays. This metal layer is not affected at all by the writ¬
ing process and acts simply as a passive mirror. ICI still regards
several aspects of digital paper, including the exact composi¬
tion of the metallic layer, as commercially sensitive in¬
formation.
Over the metal layer is the active layer that is composed of a
transparent polymer containing an infrared-absorbing dye. ICI
has produced two alternative dyes that absorb at 830 nano¬
meters or 780 nm (in the near-infrared), wavelengths corre¬
sponding to the most widely available solid-state lasers. The
thickness of the active layer in its normal state is an exact num¬
ber of half- wavelengths of the laser light used for reading and
writing. Thus, for the 830-nm dye, the active layer’s thickness
would be n X 415 nm. As a result, the portion of incident light
that passes through the active layer and is reflected by the metal
interferes constructively with that portion of the light that re¬
flects from the surface of the active layer (see figure 2), and a
strong reflected beam is formed. Constructive interference oc¬
curs when two waves are exactly in step with one another so that
the amplitude of their peaks and troughs is added together.
To write a dot onto digital paper, you beam an infrared laser,
emitting at the dye’s absorption wavelength (say, 830 nm), onto
the active layer. The dye absorbs the radiation and converts it
into heat energy. This local heating of the active layer polymer
in which the dye is dispersed causes the polymer to deform.
The deformation, for which ICI has coined the name “pyro-
plasticity,” causes the active layer to contract into a pit sur-
continued
276 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
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Harold W. McGraw, Jr.,
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McGraw-Hill. Inc.
International Executive Service Corps
It’s not just doing good. It’s doing good business.
FEBRUARY 1989 • BYTE 277
I’m a volunteer supporter of the International
Executive Service Corps, a not-for-profit or¬
ganization with a vital mission:
We send retired U.S. managers overseas
to help businesses in developing countries,
which often respond by increasing their
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n what publication did you see this ad?
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could have a project that’s just right for you.
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Harold W. McGraw, Jr., Chairman, McGraw-
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FEATURE
DIGITAL PAPER
rounded by a raised lip rather like a moon crater, as shown in
figure 2. The result of the formation of this pit is that the thick¬
ness of the active layer is reduced at that point.
To read the pit, the same laser is used at an intensity low
enough that it does not deform the polymer. The thickness of
the active layer at the pit is now no longer an exact number of
ha If- wavelengths. Therefore, the beam that passes through to
the metal layer will interfere destructively with the beam re¬
flected from the surface of the active layer— thus, the total re¬
flected beam intensity will be lower than for an undeformed
area. Destructive interference occurs when two waves are out
Figure 3: To enable the read laser to track accurately ,
digital paper must be preformatted , which is done by
embossing grooves into the active layer. The flanks of these
grooves deflect the straying laser beam and so cause
a detectable error signal that is fed back in a servo loop
to realign the beam.
Figure 4: The Bernoulli effect produces lift when airflows
faster over the upper surface of the disk than under it. The lift
makes the disk * fly ” at a close and constant distance from the
Bernoulli plate and record head , a feature that is very
advantageous for optical recording.
of step so that the peaks and troughs of one cancel out those of
the other.
Things are not quite so simple as this description would sug¬
gest because there is a fourth, protective layer of transparent
coating overlying the active layer. However, this situation
doesn’t alter the basic principles. The difference is simply that
the surface of the active layer is an interface between active
layer and coating rather than between active layer and air. Ob¬
viously, the refractive index of the coating comes into the cal¬
culation of path lengths, and the protective layer needs to be a
whole number of half-waves thick.
There is, in fact, a fifth layer on the commercial digital paper
product, though it plays no part in the optical storage process.
The substrate receives a coat of low-friction polymer as a back¬
ing to allow it to slip smoothly when coiled in reels of tape or
fitted into a floppy disk cartridge case. This backing layer also
forms an impermeable seal to prevent oxygen and moisture
from penetrating to the metal layer. ICI currently claims a 15-
year archival life for digital paper, but soon, by improving ma¬
terials and fabrication techniques, the company hopes to be
able to extend this time frame to 20 years.
What are the advantages of this pyroplastic method of writ¬
ing compared to conventional WORM technologies? The main
ones are that if you use a lower-powered laser, pits can be writ¬
ten with greater precision. The dye-containing polymer used
for the active layer is a very poor conductor of heat. As a result,
the heat energy introduced by the laser beam can be confined to
a very small volume of material and thus does not spread rapid¬
ly. This method results in a pit with very steep, sharply defined
edges.
By contrast, the most popular ablative WORM technologies
make marks directly onto the metal layer. Since they heat a
material that is a very good conductor, the heating effect will
tend to spread further, resulting in a pit with more sloping, less
well-defined edges. The sharpness of the transitions governs
the rate at which data can be both written to and read from a
medium. Digital paper, then, can support higher data rates
than conventional WORMs.
The low thermal conductivity also helps to reduce the laser
power needed to produce a pit. A more important influence,
though, is the thickness of the overlying layers. In a rigid
WORM disk, the metal reflector layer is covered with a poly¬
carbonate plastic that is typically 1 mm or more thick. The di¬
mensional accuracy is such that the writing head needs to be
another millimeter or so from the disk surface. Thus, the dis¬
tance the laser light must travel to get to the metal reflective
layer, 2 mm, is huge compared to the size of a pit. Large losses
occur due to absorption and scattering in the plastic.
On the other hand, with digital paper, the overlying protec¬
tive layer is less than a micron thick, so less laser power is re¬
quired to traverse it. As we shall see later on, other factors also
allow a reduction in the gap between the laser and the surface.
A 10-milliwatt solid-state laser can write on digital paper at
rates of up to 10 MHz, forming pits that are 1 micrometer deep.
For most computer applications, digital paper will be pre¬
formatted at the manufacturing stage with information that tells
the drive mechanism where to write the pits that encode the
data and that allows the laser head to track the data accurately.
Mechanical ridges and grooves are embossed into the surface
of the active layer (see figure 3) to achieve this result. These
ridges deflect the laser beam from their sloping surfaces if it
should stray too far from the data pits. This deflection produces
a strong transition, which the drive mechanism can use in a ser¬
vo loop to restore the head to its correct track. Pits can be writ¬
ten either in the valleys or on the flat tops of the ridges. The
278 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
FEATURE
DIGITAL PAPER
drive manufacturer makes the design decision that results in the
choice of position.
Digital Paper and the Bernoulli Effect
The most promising development of digital paper for personal
computer users is the one that’s taking place at Bernoulli Opti¬
cal Systems Corp. (BOSCO for short). BOSCO is a subsidiary
of IOMega Corp., well known for its Bernoulli Box series of
magnetic disk drives. The firm is developing a product that
combines Bernoulli technology with digital paper.
he biggest
advantage of digital paper, by far,
is its mechanical flexibility.
The marriage of these two technologies is a natural one. It is
a good example of synergy because the biggest advantage of
digital paper, by far, is its mechanical flexibility. This feature
allows us to use digital paper for flexible disks, a process that
so far none of the competing technologies can imitate. By mak¬
ing digital paper into flexible disks, BOSCO is exploiting its
existing Bernoulli expertise to produce a high-performance op¬
tical disk cartridge drive.
Bernoulli’s principle states that when the fluid flow is faster
on one side of an object than on the other, the object feels a
force toward the faster flow. It’s this effect that allows an air¬
plane’s wings to lift it into the sky and the draft from a window
to lift your papers from your desk.
The Bernoulli Box achieves this effect by using a flexible
magnetic disk that rotates very close to the underside of a fixed
circular plate containing the record heads (the removable disk is
contained in a rigid protective cartridge like that of a 3!/2-inch
floppy disk). As the disk spins, the Bernoulli plate channels
and accelerates an airflow drawn in from perforations near the
hub toward the perimeter. This process causes a net lift on the
flexible disk, which is drawn toward the fixed plate and settles
nearby, separated by a cushion of moving air. The head-to-disk
spacing is about 50 microns. The effect can even allow the disk
to mold itself around irregularities and protrusions like the
record head (see figure 4).
The Bernoulli disk is well suited for many applications, be¬
cause head crashes are much less likely than with a hard disk
drive. It is virtually impossible for the record head to touch the
disk surface, since any major obstruction, shock, or power fail¬
ure will destroy the pressure gradient and cause the floppy disk
to fall momentarily away from the head.
An added attraction of Bernoulli technology for optical
drives is that it maintains the very small head-to-disk spacing
accurately without any complex servo mechanism. Therefore,
the biggest headache for the designer of an optical read/write
head (namely, the problem of how to keep the laser beam fo¬
cused on the reflective layer of the disk) disappears completely.
In CD and WORM drives, the head-to-disk spacing can vary
widely enough to defocus the laser spot, resulting in insuffi¬
cient energy being delivered to write pits, or a reduction in the
accuracy of reading. To combat this effect, all the manufac-
continued
Introducing
BYTE's
Direct Response
International Postcards
From the most prestigious microcomputer
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Postcard ads provide a direct-response vehicle
that encourages prospects to respond to offers for
information as well as direct sales. A postcard ad
is versatile because it allows you to test your
product to potential buyers. That's because you
can use your card to sell computer products,
generate leads, conduct market research or sell
books and periodicals. Each postcard is per¬
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directly to you without any intermediary-
guaranteeing leads that are current and "hot."
Expand your horizons
into this valuable marketplace.
The Pan-European marketplace is preparing to
open up to greatly expanded trade in 1992 with
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BYTE's International Direct Response Post¬
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These unique advertising postcards which will
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In Europe, contact:
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at (01) 493-1451
McGraw-Hill Publications
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England
FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 279
FEATURE
DIGITAL PAPER
For More Information
ICI Imagedata
P.O. Box 6, Shire Park
Bessemer Rd.
Welwyn Garden City
Hertfordshire AL7 1HD, U.K.
(0707) 337284
Bernoulli Optical Systems Corp. (BOSCO)
5700 Flatiron Pkwy.
Boulder, CO 80301
(303) 939-8611
Creo Products, Inc.
1 10 Discovery Park
3700 Gilmore Way
Burnaby, BC Canada V5G 4MI
(604) 437-6879
turers of ordinary WORM drives use an active focusing mecha¬
nism with a lens mounted on voice coil that can move up and
down to alter the point of focus. This coil forms part of a
closed-loop servo mechanism driven by error signals from the
photodetector output to keep the spot at a constant size. The
whole lens and voice coil mechanism has to track with the laser
head, adding to the moving mass of the system.
Another factor that takes mass away from the head in the
Bernoulli drive is that it can dispense with the fine tracking
adjustment mechanism based on tilting mirrors required by
other optical drives to compensate for minor wobbling. The
Bernoulli drive can track the data pits using a simple servo
mechanism based on the embossed grooves mentioned above.
The BOSCO drive can get away with a simple head containing
just a fixed-focus lens, free from all this complex active focus¬
ing and tracking machinery. A light head is easier to move
around, and, thus, track-to-track seek times can be speeded up.
The close spacing produced by the Bernoulli effect also re¬
duces the total distance that the laser light has to travel. Com¬
pared to a conventional WORM drive, this reduced distance
allows the lens to be of a larger numerical aperture and hence
deliver more laser power to the active layer. More energy
creates a pit faster and lets the drive sustain a faster data rate.
This feature permits the disk to be rotated faster, since you can
write more pits in a given time frame and improve the latency
time when reading (i.e., the time taken for the required sector
to come around under the head). Better seek time and latency
mean a faster drive.
The third beneficial effect of the Bernoulli technology is that
the laser heads are so small that two of them can fit into a half¬
height disk drive housing, which permits the design of a truly
double-sided drive. Conventional WORM disks are sometimes
double-sided, but the drives have only one head, so you have to
manually turn the disk over to use the other side. The double¬
sided Bernoulli disk cartridges contain two disks separated by a
small gap, with their active surfaces facing outward. The upper
disk then acts as the Bernoulli plate for the lower disk.
The result is that the BOSCO drive promises an on-line capac¬
ity of 1 gigabyte of data per 5 !4 -inch cartridge disk, with an aver¬
age seek time of 40 ms, which is as fast as a modest hard disk
drive and much faster than conventional WORM drives. The disk
rotates at 1800 revolutions per minute, compared to around 500
rpm for typical WORM drives. The data transfer rate tells the
story even better, as the BOSCO disk can transfer 1.5 mega¬
bytes per second compared to 0.25 megabyte per second for
IBM’s WORM drive or 0.16 megabyte per second for the ISI
525 WC WORM drive. BOSCO expects to bring the new drive to
market at about the same price as a single-head WORM drive and
the media at about the same price as a single-sided WORM disk.
Although BOSCO is wholly owned by IOMega, the firm was
set up with the aid of ICI Imagedata to develop digital paper
technology, and ICI retains the right to license the drive tech¬
nology to other disk manufacturers.
Reeling in the Bits
Although the Bernoulli drive may be of the greatest immediate
interest to PC users, the first commercially available product
based on digital paper will be a tape system designed by Creo
Products, Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia. One 12-inch
reel of this 35-mm-wide digital paper tape can store 1 terabyte
(1000 gigabytes) of data. To help you grasp how much storage
this is: within 1 terabyte, you could store 1 billion typed sheets
of paper, the contents of 1600 compact disks or 5000 conven¬
tional magnetic tape cartridges, at a cost of around a half a cent
per megabyte. This tape system is designed for mainframe ap¬
plications where huge volumes need to be stored, such as in
seismic data logging, satellite image-processing applications,
and medical imaging and document archiving.
The Creo 1003 Optical Tape Drive uses a small-computer-
system interface (SCSI) and can sustain a data transfer rate of 3
megabytes per second. It takes an average of 28 seconds to
select any single byte from a full 1 -terabyte tape. The drive
uses a novel method of recording, in which 32 LED laser re¬
cording heads scan across the width of the tape from left to
right, then from right to left in discrete chunks, rather like the
frames of a photographic film. Each “frame” or physical
record is 32 bits wide by 20,000 bits and holds 80K bytes of
data. The first drives are due to be delivered in mid-1989 to the
Canadian Department of National Defense and the Center for
Remote Sensing.
It’s not hard to imagine other possible applications for digital
paper. One device that ICI Imagedata wants to see designed is a
2-inch optical disk drive for use in portable computers and digi¬
tal cameras. Even at today’s densities, such a disk could hold 80
to 100 megabytes per side, and this density should increase as
solid-state laser technology improves. Other potentially fruit¬
ful areas are that of credit card-size memory devices and smart
tags and labels.
Digital paper also shows promise as a low-cost, read-only
medium for distributing specialized databases in small vol¬
umes without incurring the huge preparation and tooling costs
involved in CD-ROM manufacture. You could duplicate them
to order just as small software houses do now with floppy
disks.
Erasable optical drives, heralded by the NeXT machine, are
set to invade the market. Even so, there is still an important role
for a nonerasable archival storage medium like digital paper —
at the very least, to replace slow and unreliable magnetic tape
drives for backing up hard disks. I calculate that everything I
have written, programmed, or otherwise generated during my
working life would fit comfortably onto a single 1 -gigabyte
Bernoulli disk. ■
Dick Fountain is a BYTE contributing editor, a technical au¬
thor, and a software consultant living in London, England. You
can contact him on BIX as “dickp. ”
280 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
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ii
FEATURE
Turbo Pascal
Windowing
System
TWindows lets you add windows to your application programs
Charles J. Butler
Vv'1' i
Mm
m
he user interface of an application can deter¬
mine its success or failure. Windowing is the
single most common user- in ter face tool and is
especially important on personal computers,
where users are often not computer experts.
Windows are used for data-entry screens, user prompts, sta¬
tus bars, light-bar menus, context-sensitive help screens— an
endless list. Nearly every program I’ve written for the PC in the
last few years has used a window in one form or another. Al¬
though I used windows in many applications, I found myself
reinventing the tools each
time. So I finally designed a
windowing system that I could
use in all my Turbo Pascal
programs.
A window is an area on the
screen, usually rectangular,
that acts independently of the
rest of the screen. There are
two major differences be¬
tween a window and a box
drawn on the screen. First,
when you open a window, all
output to that window appears
within the window's borders.
If a line is too long to fit in the
window, it either wraps to the
next line or is clipped at the
window’s edge. If too many
lines are displayed, the text in
the window scrolls up to make
room. Second, when you
close a window, its borders
and contents disappear from
the screen, the text that was
there before you opened the
window reappears, the cursor
returns to its previous position, and the active text attribute is
reinstated. In short, when you close a window, everything re¬
turns to the way it was before you opened it.
The TWindows system provides for nearly every function
that you're likely to need from a windowing system. You can
have up to 256 windows defined at one time, and you can select
any open window for output. Each window can be opened,
closed, and moved about on the screen. Each window can have
an optional border composed of any combination of characters
in the IBM character set, as well as a header and footer that are
either left justified, right jus¬
tified, or centered in the bor¬
der, Also, you have the option
of saving the underlying
screen and hiding the window
for later recall.
Building an Abstract
Data Type
I designed the TWindows
windowing system to act as an
abstract data type , which is a
method of isolating data
structures from a// the parts
of an application except the
routines that are supposed to
access them. That is, only the
procedures and functions that
act on the data structures—
and not the structures them¬
selves— are visible to the ap¬
plication. This information
hiding reduces the conflict
between the application and
the windowing system, pre¬
vents direct access to the data
continued
ILLUSTRATION: WARREN GEBERT © I9S9
FEBRUARY 1989 * BYTE 283
FEATURE
TURBO PASCAL WINDOWING SYSTEM
structures, and allows you to change the implementation with¬
out changing the application program’s source code.
In designing an abstract data type, you first decide which
procedures and functions logically have access to the data
structures. Furthermore, you should do this without regard to
the final programming language. In the case of a Window data
type, you need to be able to open and close each window indi¬
vidually and to select an open window for output. You may also
need to hide, move, and resize windows.
The key to implementing an abstract data type is information
hiding. The language must be able to limit the scope of some
identifiers to a subset of an application’s routines. These identi¬
fiers must be local in the sense that only some routines can see
them, yet global in the sense that they retain their values be-
Heap
Figure 1: The structure of the window information consists
of a 256-element array of pointers. When a window is defined ,
the array element points to the window structure , which in
turn includes a pointer to a block of memory (heap) that holds
either the screen data that is obscured by the window
or the screen of a hidden window.
7
0
r~TTT
T
[E
UserFlags byte
- ► ClearScreen
Unused
- ► SaveContents
—
- ► DisplayBorder
1 - —
- ► WriteOnBorder
7
0
TTTT
SysFlags byte
j
V V II IW|JUI 1
Unused
- ► WinHidden
Figure 2: The structure of a defined window includes 2 bytes
used for flags: UserFlags and SysFlags. Each significant bit
in the bytes acts as a dual-state signal.
tween procedure and function invocations. Finally, you should
use the language so that the collection of data structures and
access routines forming the abstract type compile separately.
This allows the window routines to remain independent of the
applications that use it.
The unit construct in Turbo Pascal allows you to create ab¬
stract types by providing a mechanism for information hiding.
The unit is composed of three distinct sections: the interface
section, the implementation section, and the initialization
section.
The interface section defines the elements that are visible to
applications using the unit. These elements should include only
the high-level access routines and constants that are needed to
use the unit.
The implementation section of the unit contains the details of
the data structures and access routines that make up the abstract
type. Any constants, types, variables, procedures, and func¬
tions not directly needed by the user of the unit should be de¬
clared in this section. The bodies of the procedures and func¬
tions declared in the interface section are in the implementation
section.
The initialization section ensures that the data structures are
properly initialized before being used. This section executes
before the main body of an application begins execution.
Defining the Data Structures
Since you can select any displayed window for output without
first closing the current window, you’ll need fast random ac¬
cess to each window so you can switch output to any one of
multiple, tiled windows without closing each one in turn. This
suggests the structure of an array of windows, but a window’s
definition and screen buffer requirements are too large to pre¬
allocate for all 256 windows. After all, many application pro¬
grams will use only a few windows. A good compromise for
both access speed and memory efficiency is a set of pointers to
windows. Since each pointer takes 4 bytes of memory, the win¬
dow system overhead is a fixed IK byte (256 windows times 4
bytes per window).
As shown in figure 1 , each window’s array element points to
a window definition record (WDR), which is dynamically allo¬
cated on the heap. The WDR for a window stores all the infor¬
mation necessary to display that window on the screen. This
includes the window’s coordinates, the characters that will
make up the window’s frame, header and footer titles, the text
attributes for all the window’s elements, and the cursor posi¬
tion and text attribute in effect when the window was last
active.
The WDR also contains a pointer to another block of mem¬
ory on the heap. This block of memory contains a copy of the
data hidden under the window. This data is saved when you
open a window and restored when you close it. You will want to
save the underlying information when you use temporary pop¬
up windows, so you can restore the screen to its former state
when you close the window. However, in many cases, such as
with adjacent tiled windows that cover only the DOS screen,
you may wish to avoid using the extra memory required for
storing the underlying screen. The definition of the window de¬
termines whether or not to save the underlying screen.
The declarations necessary to implement the array of WDR
pointers, WinArray and the WDR declaration itself, appear
only in the implementation section of the unit so that they are
invisible to the application program using the unit. Also, sev¬
eral declarations that allow other procedures and functions of
the unit to address the screen directly appear in the implemen¬
tation section. ScreenArray is an array of ScreenLine ele-
284 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
FEATURE
TURBO PASCAL WINDOWING SYSTEM
ments. ScreenLine is itself an array, each element of which
represents one character on the screen. Each character in video
memory is stored as 2 bytes (a word). The first, or lowest, byte
is the ASCII code for the character, and the second is the attri¬
bute byte. The variable Screen, of type ScreenArrayPtr,
points to video memory, allowing you to access it by assigning
values directly to Screen (actually, the system will not assign
values directly to Screen, as this would cause snow on many
CGA monitors— see the section “Opening, Closing, and Se¬
lecting Windows” for an explanation).
Defining and Deleting Windows
Creating and using a window with this system is a two-step pro¬
cess (see listing 1). First, you define the window and open it.
When you’ve finished using the window, close it or delete it.
Closing a window will remove it from the screen and restore the
underlying screen (if it was saved). The window can then be
opened again at a later time. Deleting a window, however, will
completely remove its definition from the system. It must then
be redefined if you need it again.
Before you can open a window, you must define it with the
procedure Def ineWindow. Def ineWindow takes as arguments a
Window Identifier (WID), the x- and y-coordinates of the top-
left and bottom-right corners of the window, the default attri¬
butes for the displayed text, frame-definition information, and
a set of flags.
The frame-definition information includes the string of eight
characters that make up the window’s border, starting from the
top-left corner and proceeding clockwise around the frame,
ending with the left-side character. If the string is less than
eight characters long, the last specified character will repeat in
all the remaining positions. Several common border strings are
included as constants in the unit. Also included in the border
definition are the header and footer titles and the attributes for
the frame and titles. Each of the title strings can be left or right
justified or centered on the top and bottom borders.
The UserFlags byte specifies four characteristics that a win¬
dow can exhibit when opened. As shown in figure 2, each char¬
acteristic is represented by one bit in the UserFlags byte. The
ClearScreen flag determines whether or not the window will
be cleared after it is displayed on the screen. By not setting the
ClearScreen flag, you can create an interesting see-through
effect. The SaveContents flag determines whether or not the
screen data under the window will be saved on the heap. If
SaveContents is set, the underlying screen will reappear when
you close the window.
Setting the DisplayBorder flag produces a frame around
the window. The frame actually sits on top of the coordinates
for the window, effectively reducing the window’s usable space
by two rows and two columns. If DisplayBorder is not set, the
entire space defined by the coordinates will be available for
writing. Finally, the WriteOnBorder flag determines exactly
where the Turbo Pascal Window coordinates will be set. If
WriteOnBorder is set, the viewport will reside right on top of
the border, allowing the Write and Writeln procedures to
place characters on the border. This is handy for drawing lines
from border to border or for displaying special characters, such
as arrowheads, to indicate that information has scrolled out of
the window. If WriteOnBorder is not set, the viewport will be
set just inside the border.
I’ve defined several constants in the interface section of the
unit to assist you in building the UserFlags byte. Simply add
these together to specify any combination of characteristics.
The Def aultFlag constant represents the most commonly used
continued
Listing 1: A short Turbo Pascal program that uses
the functions and procedures ofTWindows.
Once a window has been defined , it can be opened,
selected, moved, hidden, or deleted.
program WinDemo2;
uses
Crt, Dos, Wind20;
const
Sample = 1;
var
i,j: word;
Ch: char;
Col , Row , ColDel , RowDel , Color : byte ;
begin
Randomize;
SetCursor(Off ) ;
{ Define a small window in the upper left corner }
DefineWindow( Sample,
1,1,20,11, Attr(Cyan, Black) ,
DoubleUpBorder, Attr(LightCyan, Black) ,
'Sample Header' ,Attr (Yellow, Black) , Left,
'Sample Footer ' ,Attr(Green, Black) , Center,
DefaultFlag) ;
{ Open the window to display }
OpenWindow( Sample) ;
Delay (500);
{ Display random characters in the window }
for i:= 1 to 5000 do
begin
Ch:= Char(Random(256) ) ;
if (Ch<>#7) and (Ch<>#8) then
Write(Ch)
end;
Delay (500);
{ Move the window around the screen at increasing
speed }
for i:= 1 to 200 do
begin
RelocateWindow ( Sample , Random ( 59 ) +1 ,
Random ( 13 )+l) ;
Delay(200-i)
end;
for i:= 1 to 200 do
RelocateW indow ( Sample , Random ( 59 ) +1 ,
Random ( 13 )+l) ;
RelocateWindow(Sample,l,l) ; { Back home }
Delay (500);
{ Now show "smooth" window movement }
for j : = 1 to 5 do
begin
for i:= 1 to 60 do
MoveWindow(Sample,RightDir) ;
for i:= 1 to 14 do
MoveWindow ( Sample, DownDir) ;
for i:= 1 to 60 do
MoveWindow ( Sample, LeftDir) ;
for i:= 1 to 14 do
MoveW indow ( Sample , UpDir )
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 285
FEATURE
TURBO PASCAL WINDOWING SYSTEM
end;
Delay (500) ;
{ Show random overlapping windows }
for i:= 2 to 255 do
begin
Col: = Random ( 78 )+l; ColDel:= Random (78 -Col) +2;
Row: = Random ( 23 )+l; RowDel:= Random (23 -Row) +2;
Color := Random ( 16) +1;
DefineWindow(i,
Col , Row , Col+ColDel , Row+RowDel , Attr ( Black , Color) ,
SingleBorder, Attr(Color, Black) ,
' ',0,Left,
",0,Left,
DefaultFlag) ;
OpenWindow(i) ;
end;
Delay (500);
{ Close and delete all the windows }
for i:= 255 downto 1 do
begin
CloseWindow(i) ;
DeleteWindow(i) ;
Delay (20);
end;
Delay (500);
SetCursor(On) ;
SelectWindow(O) ;
end.
type of window. A default window will save the underlying
screen, display a frame around the window, and clear the win¬
dow after it is displayed.
There is also a SysFlags byte in the WDR. This byte is not
directly accessible by the application, but the window system
uses it to keep track of whether the window is open or hidden.
Figure 2 shows SysFlag’s format as well.
You should note that Def ineWindow only builds a WDR for
the window and does not actually cause the window to be dis¬
played. This allows you to define all the windows that you will
use in an application at the beginning of the program where they
will be easy to find and maintain. In this way, you can change
the characteristics of a window without hunting down the sec¬
tion of code that opens it. I usually designate ranges of the 256
possible WIDs for different purposes, such as help screens,
data-entry screens, menus, status bars, and so on.
If you wish to reuse a WID or reclaim the heap space used for
a window definition, you must use the DeleteWindow proce¬
dure. DeleteWindow takes a WID as a parameter. It will free
the memory used to hold the WDR and reset the associated
WinArray pointer to NIL, effectively undefining the window.
The window must already be closed before you can delete it.
The headings for Def ineWindow and DeleteWindow appear in
the interface section of the unit because they must be available
to your application.
Opening, Closing, and Selecting Windows
At some point in the application, after you have defined a win¬
dow, you will want to display it on the screen. You use the Open-
Window procedure for this purpose. OpenWindow takes a single
parameter, the WID of the window to be opened. The informa¬
tion stored in the window’s WDR determines the exact actions
taken to display the window.
Before getting into the details of the OpenWindow algorithm,
it is helpful to understand the routines used to save an area of
the screen to the heap and then to restore it back to the screen. I
mentioned earlier that writing directly to video memory causes
snow on some CGA monitors. For this reason, Turbo Pascal
supplies the CheckSnow variable in the CRT unit. When set to
TRUE, CheckSnow causes the Turbo output routines to wait for
a horizontal retrace before writing directly to video memory.
The MicroCalc program that Borland supplies with Turbo Pas¬
cal contains the same function in the procedures MoveTo-
Screen and MoveFromScreen. These highly optimized assem¬
bly language routines move blocks of memory to and from
video memory, while waiting for horizontal retrace if Check¬
Snow is set to TRUE, thereby avoiding snow on CGA monitors.
The initialization section of the unit determines what display
adapter you are using and sets CheckSnow accordingly.
The procedure SaveArea takes as parameters the coordi¬
nates of the top-left and bottom-right corners of the rectangle to
be saved, as well as a pointer variable of type ScreenBlockPtr.
Although the type ScreenBlockPtr is declared as a pointer to a
3440-word array (43 lines by 80 columns), SaveArea uses only
enough memory to save the area under the window. Since the
ScreenBlockPtr type allows you to address a block up to a full
screen, you must avoid addressing past the actual amount of
memory allocated on the heap. The memory required to save an
area of the screen is the area’s height times its width times 2
(the size of a word). In terms of the coordinates, this is
(RightCol - LeftCol + l) X (BottomRow - TopRow + 1)
X 2 bytes
After a block of memory is allocated, MoveFromScreen
copies the area of video memory out to the heap, a row at a
time. The data must be copied row by row because MoveFrom¬
Screen (and MoveToScreen) expects to move contiguous
blocks of memory, and only the data within a screen row is
stored contiguously. The passed pointer variable is set to point
to the heap block (or to NIL if there is a memory-allocation
error).
The RestoreArea procedure is similar to SaveArea except
that data is copied from the heap block back into video memory
using the MoveToScreen routine. After the copy operation is
complete, the block of heap memory is freed, and the passed
pointer is set to NIL. Note here that the coordinates passed to
SaveArea and RestoreArea do not have to be identical, but
they must define the same length and width. Otherwise, the
data will not be restored to the correct rows.
Before returning to the OpenWindow algorithm, you need one
last procedure, DrawBorder, which simply draws a rectangular
frame around the window area. But the justification and attri¬
bute options available for headers and footers complicate this
otherwise simple procedure. DrawBorder takes as parameters
the coordinates of the upper-left and lower-right corners of the
window, as well as a record of type BorderDefType. This is the
same record type used to store the border definition in the
WDR. It holds the border-definition string, the header and
footer text, justification specifications, and the attributes for
displaying the border and title strings. First, DrawBorder
builds the top and bottom borders in memory, complete with
centered or justified titles, and then uses MoveToScreen to
display them on the screen. It then displays the left and right
borders, one row at a time.
The SaveArea, RestoreArea, and DrawBorder procedures
are internal to the unit, since their headers do not appear in the
interface section. The window system uses these procedures for
continued
286 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
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Circle 10 on Reader Service Coni
FEATURE
TURBO PASCAL WINDOWING SYSTEM
its own purposes; they are not intended for the application’s
use. This kind of procedure hiding prevents inappropriate use
of these support routines. Since the SaveArea, RestoreArea,
and DrawBorder procedures are called exclusively from inter¬
nal routines, they expect to be passed valid coordinates and do
not recheck them. Should the application call these routines
without providing proper error checking, some unpredictable
results might occur.
OpenWindow looks at the UserFlags byte in the WDR to de¬
termine how the window should be displayed. If the SaveCon-
tents bit of UserFlags is set, OpenWindow calls SaveArea to
save the underlying screen contents. OpenWindow passes the co¬
ordinates from the WDR, as well as the SaveScreen pointer, as
parameters to SaveArea. SaveArea then saves the screen area
under the window and gives SaveScreen a pointer to this area.
Next, the current window’s cursor position and active text
attribute are recorded in its WDR. When you select the current
window with SelectWindow (described later), this information
is used to restore the window to its former state. Then, if the
DisplayBorder flag is set, DrawBorder displays the new win¬
dow’s frame. The parameters are the WDR’s coordinates and
the BorderDef record.
Now, if the ClearScreen UserFlags bit is set, OpenWindow
calls the Turbo Pascal Window procedure to define a temporary
viewport for a subsequent call to ClrScr. If the frame is dis¬
played, then the viewport is set just inside the frame; other¬
wise, it is set right on the window’s coordinates.
Finally, OpenWindow defines the window’s permanent view¬
port by using the settings of the DisplayBorder and WriteOn-
Border flags. If there are no borders, or if the WriteOnBorder
UserFlags bit is set, the window’s coordinates define the view¬
port. Otherwise, the viewport is set just inside the window’s
coordinates. After completely displaying the window, Open-
Window updates several housekeeping variables— it sets the Ac-
tiveWin variable to the new WID, it marks the window as open
in its own WDR (using the Sys Flags byte), and it increments
the total number of open windows.
You use the CloseWindow procedure to remove a window
from the screen. CloseWindow takes a single parameter, the
WID of the window you want to close. CloseWindow is similar
to OpenWindow, except that it uses RestoreArea to copy the un¬
derlying screen area back to video memory from the heap. Of
course, it does this only if OpenWindow saved the screen. Most
other actions are the reverse of those taken by OpenWindow.
If the currently active window is the one that you are closing,
CloseWindow selects Window 0, the full screen, as the active
window. You may wonder why it doesn’t restore the previously
active window. Without having a complete history of the open
and close sequence, it is impossible for the window system to
determine which window to make active. For example, if you
open windows A, B, and C and then close B, you cannot rese¬
lect B when you close C. There are similar problems with hid¬
den windows (described later). For these reasons, after closing
an active window, you must explicitly select the next active
window with the SelectWindow procedure.
Most applications that use windows have more than one open
at a time. OpenWindow automatically selects the new window as
the active window. This means that all screen output statements
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288 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
FEATURE
TURBO PASCAL WINDOWING SYSTEM
affect that window. When it becomes necessary to update an¬
other open window without closing the first, you must explic¬
itly select the other window with SelectWindow.
SelectWindow takes a WID as a parameter. The window
must already be defined, opened, and not hidden. All subse¬
quent screen output statements affect the newly selected win¬
dow. Whenever you select a new window, the previously active
window’s WDR holds its cursor position and text attribute so it
can be restored when the window becomes active again.
SelectWindow’s primary task is to reset the Window viewport
by using the same algorithm as OpenWindow with the Display-
Border and WriteOnBorder flags. After setting the new view¬
port, SelectWindow restores the cursor position and text attri¬
bute that were in effect when the window was last active.
Finally, the procedure updates the ActiveWin variable.
The OpenWindow, CloseWindow, and SelectWindow proce¬
dures are all available to the application, so their headers ap¬
pear in the unit’s interface section.
Hiding and Displaying Windows
An interesting feature of this system is that it allows you to hide
windows. When you hide an open window using HideWindow,
the procedure saves the contents of the current window on the
heap. The underlying screen area is restored to the screen. The
visual effect is the same as if the window were closed, except
that the window and its contents are restorable.
HideWindow takes a WID as a parameter. It first copies the
current contents of the window to a new screen block on the
heap using the Save Area procedure. It then restores the under¬
lying screen area from the heap using the RestoreArea proce¬
dure. Finally, it points the window’s WDR SaveScreen vari¬
able to the saved screen block.
When you hide a window, you cannot select it for output.
Also, if the window you hide is the currently active window,
then Window 0, the full screen, becomes the new active win¬
dow. If this happens, you must explicitly select a new window
with the SelectWindow procedure. HideWindow also does sev¬
eral housekeeping chores such as flagging the window as hid¬
den and incrementing the count of hidden windows.
You use the DisplayWindow procedure to redisplay a hidden
window. DisplayWindow takes a WID as a parameter. It is the
reverse of HideWindow; that is, it saves the underlying screen
area to the heap and restores the previous contents of the win¬
dow from the heap to the screen. Once a window is restored,
you can select it for output.
An interesting aspect of hiding and restoring windows is that
you can change the coordinates of a hidden window, and when
you reselect it, it will appear in the new position on the screen
with its previous contents. Although an application program
cannot directly change the coordinates in a WDR, the Re-
locateWindow procedure performs this action automatically.
Relocating and Moving Windows
The most common reason for providing ways to move windows
is to let users position windows to their taste.
The window system supplies two procedures for moving
windows about on the screen— RelocateWindow and MoveWin-
continued
about customer satisfaction.
sales representative for details. ©1988 Harris/3M Document Products, Inc. Harris is a trademark
of the Harris Corporation. 3M is a trademark of the 3M Company.
Circle 104 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 289
Table 1: The TWindows functions and procedures in this table are all that an application program can see of the unit.
Although there are other internal functions , procedures , and variables in the window unit , they are invisible
to the application program.
procedure DefineWindow
Creates a new window definition
(WindowlD : byte;
Window ID number (WID)
LeftCol : byte;
Left-column coordinate
TopRow byte;
Top- row coordinate
RightCol byte;
Right-column coordinate
Bottom Row : byte;
Bottom-row coordinate
WindowAttr : byte;
Attribute for window writes
BorderStr BorderStrType;
String to use for border characters
BorderAttr ; byte;
Attribute for border characters
HeaderStr : TitleStrType;
String for header text
Header Attr : byte;
Attribute for header text
HeaderJust : JustifyType;
Justification for header string
FooterStr : TitleStrType;
String for footer text
Footer Attr : byte;
Attribute for footer text
FooterJust : JustifyType;
Justification for footer string
UserFlags : byte);
User flags
procedure DeleteWindow
Deletes a window from the system, freeing the heap space used.
(WindowlD byte);
Window ID number
procedure OpenWindow
Displays a window on the screen. The window must already be defined and not already open.
(WindowlD : byte);
Window ID number
procedure CloseWindow
Removes a window from the screen and redisplays the underlying contents, if it was saved
by OpenWindow.
(WindowlD byte);
Window ID number
procedure SelectWindow
Selects a window for output.
(WindowlD : byte);
Window ID number
procedure HideWindow
Differs from CloseWindow in that the contents of the window are saved and can be restored.
(WindowlD byte);
Window ID number
procedure DisplayWindow
Undoes the action of HideWindow.
(WindowlD byte);
Window ID number
procedure RelocateWindow
Moves an open window to a new position on the screen.
(WindowlD byte;
Window ID number
NewLeftCol : byte;
New left column
NewTopRow: byte);
New top row
procedure MoveWindow
Moves an open, displayed window by one row or column in a specified direction.
(WindowlD: byte;
Window ID number
Direction: DirectionType);
Direction to move WindowlD
function WindowDefined
Returns a true if WindowlD is defined.
(WindowlD byte): boolean;
Window ID number
function WindowOpen
Returns a true if WindowlD is currently open.
(WindowlD : byte): boolean;
Window ID number
function WindowHidden
Returns a true if WindowlD is currently hidden.
(WindowlD byte): boolean;
Window ID number
function ActiveWindow: byte;
Returns the WindowlD of the currently active window.
function WinError: byte;
Returns the error status of the last window operation.
function Attr
Returns the attribute byte necessary to display characters using foreground and
background colors.
(Foreground: byte;
Foreground color
Background: byte): byte;
Background color
procedure SetCursor
Turns the cursor on or off based on Switch.
(OnOff: Switch);
function Mono: boolean;
Tests for monochrome adapter.
function EGAInstalled : boolean;
Tests for the presence of an EGA.
290 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
FEATURE
TURBO PASCAL WINDOWING SYSTEM
dow. They differ in their use, their visual effects on the screen,
and the complexity of their algorithms.
RelocateWindow, the simplest of the two, takes a WID and
the new coordinates of the top-left corner of the window as pa¬
rameters. The procedure moves a window by first hiding it,
then recalculating the new coordinates of its bottom-right
corner, and then redisplaying it at its new position. If the win¬
dow is already hidden, only the coordinates are changed— the
window is not redisplayed. Since the HideWindow procedure
automatically restores the underlying screen area, HideWindow
is useful for moving a window to a distant position in a quick
jump.
The parameters of MoveWindow, on the other hand, are not
new screen coordinates, but rather a direction to move. Move-
Window moves the window either a single row or column, de¬
pending on the direction parameter. The result is a smoother
movement than with RelocateWindow.
To achieve this, the screen block used to store the underlying
screen area is “spliced” with the newly covered row or column.
Only the newly uncovered row or column is restored to the
screen. The window’s information moves to its new position
using the MoveFromScreen and MoveToScreen procedures.
Moving a window up and down is fairly straightforward.
First, the row about to be covered over is saved to a temporary
location on the heap. Second, the window is moved row by row
in the direction specified by the direction parameter. Third,
the row just vacated is restored from its position within the heap
screen block back to video memory. Fourth, the heap block is
shifted either up or down by the amount of memory necessary
to store one row of data in order to make room for the newly
covered row. Finally, the row temporarily saved in step one is
moved into the heap block and its memory freed.
Moving a window left and right is complicated by the fact
that the screen block data is laid out on the heap in a row-by-row
fashion. In this case, it is a screen column that is saved, re¬
stored, and spliced into the screen block. This means that each
row section of the block must be shifted up or down by 2 bytes
(one word) to make room for a new screen character within
each row. After the window is moved by one column on the
screen, the saved column is spliced into the screen block one
character at a time, at either the beginning or end of each row,
depending on the direction of movement.
On my 8-MHZ AT clone (with an EGA card), the window
movement is fast enough to simulate the real-time, smooth
movement required for applications that allow the end user to
move windows with the arrow keys.
Using the TWindows System
When an application using this windowing unit starts up, the
initialization section is the first to execute. It begins by install¬
ing a new heap error function, HeapFunc, which causes mem¬
ory-allocation errors to return NIL pointers. In this way, the
application can recover should it run out of free heap space. If
your application already performs this function, you can re¬
move this code from the unit.
The initialization section goes on to set all elements of Win-
Array to NIL, and to allocate and initialize a WDR for Win¬
dow 0. Window 0 represents the full screen; you cannot rede¬
fine, open, close, hide, or move it. You can, however, select it.
If you select Window 0 at the end of your application, the cursor
position and text attributes will return to the values in effect
when you started up the application.
The start-up code then determines the video card installed
and sets the variable Screen to point to the proper location for
video memory. It also sets CheckSnow to FALSE if you are
using either a monochrome or an EGA adapter.
As mentioned earlier, you must define a window before you
can use it. By defining all your windows at the beginning of
your application’s code, you will find it easy to “tweak” win¬
dow coordinates and attributes during development. To reduce
the time it takes to enter a complete window definition, I have
included some common border strings as constants in the inter¬
face section. You will find the Attr function useful. It takes
two color parameters and returns an attribute byte. Here is a
sample Def ineWindow call:
MainMenu:=l;
DefineWindow
(MainMenu,
10,5,30,10, Attr ( LightCyan , Black) ,
DoubleBorder, Attr (LightCyan, Black) ,
* MainMenu 1 ,Attr(Yellow, Black) , Center,
1 ' ,0,Left,
DefaultFlag) ;
Notice that if you don’t need a footer in the bottom border,
you can specify a null string as the footer text. The values of the
footer attribute and justification specification are not used.
After you define the window, you can open it with a call to
OpenWindow. Since OpenWindow automatically selects the win¬
dow for output, a SelectWindow is not necessary. However, if
you select a different window later, you can reinstate this win¬
dow as the active window with
SelectWindow(MainMenu) ;
There are several inquiry functions you can use to probe the
window environment without actually knowing anything about
the internal representation of the data structures. The system
has built-in error checking that will display an error message if
an error occurs during one of the interface procedure calls.
After you debug the application, you can disable the message
printing, but the application can still check the error status after
each call by using the WinError function. WinError returns
the value of the WError variable and then resets it to 0. Table 1
lists all the available functions and procedures.
You may have noticed that this system conspicuously lacks a
ResizeWindow procedure. To be quite honest, I haven’t yet
needed to resize a window. Most windows contain forms that
are preformatted for a certain area. An application that allows
editing data in a window might well allow you to change the
window’s size at run time (SideKick is a good example). A Re¬
sizeWindow procedure would resemble MoveWindow, in that
the heap screen block would be spliced with new screen data as
you resize the window. When the resizing operation is com¬
plete, a new heap block would be used for the new underlying
screen area in order to keep the data contiguous in memory.
The complete source code of the window unit and a demon¬
stration program, W indemo, is available in a variety of formats
(see page 3 for details). The demonstration program runs
through all the features available through this system. It is con¬
figured for a color, 25-row by 80-column display, but this is
easily changed. The system supports all 80-column text modes
available on the PC. The maximum values of the row and col¬
umn coordinates are determined when you define the first win¬
dow. Window 0, the full screen, will then be active. ■
Charles J. Butler is a systems engineer at the Federal Home
Loan Mortgage Corp. offices in Reston, Virginia. He can be
reached on BIX as “cj butler. ”
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 291
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292 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
The interface you pick
can dramatically
affect your system’s
performance
Nowadays, many microcom¬
puter manufacturers’ perfor¬
mance claims center around
hard disk drive interfaces and
the encoding schemes they use— usually
described by acronyms like RLL (run
length limited), ESDI (enhanced small
device interface), and SCSI (small com¬
puter system interface). How do these in¬
terfaces work, and what effects do they
really have on performance? In this in¬
stallment of Under the Hood, I’ll de¬
scribe some of the most popular inter¬
faces for microcomputer hard disk drives
and explain what you can expect from
each one.
The Big Picture
To get the right perspective on these in¬
terfaces, it’s important to see how hard
disk drives fit into the larger scheme of
things. Figure 1 shows the full range of
interfaces, from the low-end ST506
(used on the IBM PC XT and AT, among
others) to the fast, powerful, and expen¬
sive IPI (intelligent peripheral interface)
used on many mainframes.
As microcomputer users, we’re most
interested in those interfaces that are
found in the low and middle ranges, in¬
cluding ST506/ST412, ESDI, and SCSI.
SMD (storage module device) is a vener¬
able mainframe interface seen infre¬
quently on microcomputers but occasion¬
ally used to connect large disk drives to
microcomputer file servers.
ST506: The First Standard
The use of hard disk drives on microcom¬
puters is a relatively recent phenomenon.
While they were available for many early
HANDS ON
UNDER THE HOOD ■ Brett Glass
Hard Disk
machines (S-100 systems and even the
Apple II), the boom did not begin until
5 V* -inch hard disk drives first appeared
in the early 1980s. Shugart Technology
(now Seagate Technology) pioneered the
manufacture of these small-form-factor
disk drives with the 5-megabyte ST506
hard disk drive.
The ST506 was derived from two
other interfaces: the SA450 interface for
5*4-inch floppy disk drives and the
SA1000 interface for 8-inch hard disk
drives. Like the SA450, the ST506 used a
34-pin daisy-chain cable for control sig¬
nals; like the SA1000, it used individual
20-pin “radial” cables to carry data be¬
tween the controller and each disk drive
(see table 1). It’s no coincidence that this
feature also allowed cables from existing
disk drives to be used on newer ones.
The ST506 interface was designed to
read and write data at a maximum rate of
5 megabits per second— not as fast as a
disk drive using SMD (the mainframe
standard of the day), but still faster than
the microcomputers available at that time
could accept.
A problem with the original ST506 in¬
terface was that, as with a floppy disk
drive, the read/write head had to be
stepped (moved across the disk) one
track at a time by carefully timed pulses.
Since these pulses actually caused the
read/ write head’s stepper motor to ad¬
vance a notch, they could not proceed
faster than the disk drive could move the
head.
The ST412 disk drive introduced an
enhancement that eliminated this prob¬
lem: the buffered seek. Instead of requir¬
ing the controller to slow the pulse rate to
whatever the mechanism could handle,
the ST412 simply counted the pulses as
they came in. It then decided for itself
how fast to step the head to move the re¬
quired number of tracks.
Enter RLL Encoding
While the ST506 standard was sufficient
for many applications, disk drives were
still expensive. Thus, manufacturers
sought ways to pack more data onto a sin¬
gle ST506 disk. Many companies began
to use a compression technique invented
by IBM called RLL encoding, which
squeezed 50 percent more space and
speed out of an ST506 disk drive. To use
RLL, you need a controller that’s spe¬
cially designed to use this encoding
scheme (see the text box “RLL Encod¬
ing” on page 296).
At first, using RLL encoding on an
ST506-type disk drive was a risky propo¬
sition. RLL requires higher precision in
the recording circuitry, medium, and
disk drive mechanism than the usual
modified-frequency-modulation (MFM)
encoding technique. Thus, for RLL,
disk drive manufacturers had to add tests
that certified correct operation. Today,
however, virtually all manufacturers of¬
fer RLL-certified disk drives that meet
the higher tolerances.
A typical ST506/RLL disk drive will
provide a net data transfer rate of 7.5
megabits per second, and because it can
fit more data on a track than a non-RLL
disk drive, it will probably need to step
the heads less often as well.
Advanced and Enhanced RLL
The initial RLL schemes had the advan¬
tage of expanding disk drive capacity
while keeping the repetition rate— the
maximum frequency of the pulses pres¬
ent on the data cable— at or below the
rated 5 MHz. Some controller manufac¬
turers, however, attempted to increase
the repetition rate as well, to 6.7 MHz.
These schemes— ARLL (advanced RLL)
and ERLL (enhanced RLL)— resulted in
a 100 percent increase in space and data
transfer rates over the original ST506
designs.
ARLL and ERLL systems experience
more problems than RLL systems, how¬
ever, because they push the disk drives
far beyond their original design limits.
At these speeds, the disk drives became
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 293
HANDS ON
UNDER THE HOOD
Figure 1: The solution regarding which hard disk drive interface is best suited to your computer depends on your machine ’s
complexity and performance. (Figure courtesy ofENDL Consulting. Used with permission.)
Table 1: A comparison of the cabling, data path widths, ranges, and data transfer rates of a number of popular hard disk
drive interfaces. ( Table courtesy ofENDL Consulting. Used with permission.)
Conductors
Daisy Radial
chain
Data path
width (bits)
Distance
(meters)
Rep. rate
(MHz)
Bit rate
(megabits
per sec.)
Byte rate
(megabytes
per sec.)
ST506/412
34
20
1
3
5
5
0.625
ST506/412/RLL
34
20
1
3
5
7.5
0.9375
ESDI
34
20
1
3
10
10
1.25
SMD
60
26
1
15
14.4
14.4
1.8
SMD-E
60
26
1
15
24
24
3
SASI
50
—
8
3
1.5
12
1.5
SCSI
50
—
8
25
4
32
4
SCSI-2
50+68
—
8+24
25
10
80-320
10-40
IPI-3
50
—
16
125
5
80
10
Enhanced IPI
50/100
—
16+16
>60
12.5
400
50
294 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
HANDS ON
UNDER THE HOOD
Glossary
ARLL Advanced-run-length-limited
encoding; a variant of RLL in which ad¬
ditional speedup techniques are used to
squeeze more data onto the disk.
buffered seek A feature that allows a
disk drive to accept step pulses— signals
that cause the head to move across the
disk faster than the head is able to move.
The pulses are remembered (buffered),
and the head is moved to the desired lo¬
cation as fast as possible.
CAM Common access method; an
evolving standard that will let program¬
mers on different computers use the
same source code to control SCSI
devices.
data separator This device extracts
and decodes data and clocking informa¬
tion from the raw signals received by
the read/write head of a disk drive.
ERLL Enhanced-run-length-limited
encoding. See ARLL.
ESDI Enhanced small device inter¬
face. This serial device-level interface,
designed for disk drives only, improves
on the ST506 interface by performing
data separation on the drive and allow¬
ing the controller to send the drive
binary commands over a parallel bus.
FM Frequency modulation. The sim¬
plest but least efficient way of encoding
disk data, it’s virtually never used on
hard disk drives. It’s called frequency
modulation because the pulse rate var¬
ies depending on whether the current bit
is a 0 or a 1 .
IPI Intelligent peripheral interface; a
mainframe standard that allows long
cable lengths, distributed control, and
high data throughput.
MFM Modified frequency modula¬
tion. This encoding technique, also
called double-density when used on
floppy disks, allows twice as much data
per track as FM.
repetition rate The maximum fre¬
quency at which the data lines of an in¬
terface can transmit data bits. Multiply¬
ing the repetition rate by the width of the
data path yields the data transfer rate of
the interface.
RLL Run-length-limited encoding.
An extension of MFM, RLL uses a
complex scheme to separate pulses still
further on the disk and allow for still
higher data densities. Most systems de¬
scribed as RLL use 2,7 RLL encoding;
a few use 1,7 RLL. (See the text box
“RLL Encoding” on page 296.)
SCSI Small computer system inter¬
face. This parallel bus standard is de¬
signed to interface small computers to
disks, tape drives, and other periph¬
erals. It requires intelligence in each
peripheral.
SMD Storage module device inter¬
face; a venerable mainframe standard
that is slowly falling into disuse because
of its cost and the emergence of faster
interfaces.
ST506 The hard disk drive interface
introduced by Seagate in its ST506 5 %-
inch hard disk drive. This interface has
become a de facto industry standard.
step The process of positioning the
disk drive head to the chosen location on
the disk by moving it incrementally in
the desired direction, one notch at a
time.
very sensitive to temperature variations,
slight differences in manufacturing toler¬
ances, and cable lengths. Few manufac¬
turers wanted to take the time to certify
that their disk drives would work under
these conditions.
For these reasons, you may want to
think twice before buying an ARLL or
ERLL controller. If you want additional
speed, consider an ESDI or SCSI disk
drive instead.
ESDI
As early as 1983, manufacturers of disk
drives and controllers saw a need for a
standardized, reliable interface with a
greater throughput rate than the ST506.
To this end, Maxtor, a hard disk drive
manufacturer, initiated the development
of the ESDI standard.
While the cables for ESDI are exactly
the same size and shape as those for the
ST506, ESDI provides a number of new
features that greatly enhance perfor¬
mance. It also has provisions for support
of optical disks.
What’s different about ESDI? Well,
the most important change was the move
of the data separator (a component that
extracts data and dock pulses from the
signals received by the head) from the
disk drive controller onto the disk drive
itself. This change had two main bene¬
fits: The signal was not as likely to be
degraded in long runs of cable, and the
data separator itself could be “tuned” to
the characteristics of the disk drive and
medium. Because ESDI does not use any
analog signals on either cable, it can eas¬
ily achieve data transfer rates of 10
megabits per second, and it has a theoret¬
ical capacity of 24 megabits per second
or more.
In ESDI, control signals also are
streamlined. While the head can still be
stepped a track at a time (as in the
ST506), an ESDI controller can also
specify the desired track using a binary
number. Other ESDI commands can ask
for configuration information— for ex¬
ample, whether the drive is a WORM
(write once, read many), status (such as
whether a removable medium has been
changed), or diagnostic tests.
SMD
Control Data Corp. (CDC) developed the
SMD interface for large fixed and re¬
movable disk drives. Until the introduc¬
tion of the IPI standard, SMD was the
standard interface for disk drives with
large capacities and diameters larger
than 5 lA inches.
Like ESDI, SMD has a data separator
on the controller that permits a data
transfer rate of 14.4 megabits per sec¬
ond. A data transfer rate of 24 megabits
per second is available on an SMD-E, an
enhanced version of SMD. However, be¬
cause other standards are easier and less
expensive to implement, SMD disk
drives are not often used on microcom¬
puters. When you do see one on a micro¬
computer, it is generally in a file server
that uses very large disks, like the Fujitsu
Eagle.
SCSI
SCSI was developed in the late 1970s as
an interface between a computer and an
intelligent disk drive controller. Intro¬
duced by Shugart Associates as SASI
(Shugart Associates system interface), it
allowed computers to issue commands
and receive data over a simple parallel
bus with a byte-wide data path and a rela¬
tively small number of control signals.
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 295
HANDS ON
UNDER THE HOOD
The encoding scheme called run
length limited (RLL) is useful for
squeezing the largest possible amount of
data onto a hard disk drive. To under¬
stand how encoding schemes work, let’s
look at the three most common ones
used today: frequency modulation (FM),
used on older floppy disk drives, modi¬
fied frequency modulation (MFM),
used on current floppy disk drives and
many hard disk drives, and 2,7 RLL
(used on most RLL hard disk drives).
Data on a magnetic disk is recorded
as a series of pulses and silences. In the
FM encoding scheme, each 1 or 0 is rep¬
resented by a pattern consisting of
pulses and silences. For example, a si¬
lence followed by a pulse is a 0, and a
silence followed by two pulses is a 1.
The pulse that’s always there is called
the clock pulse. Because there is a clock
pulse in every bit, it’s easy for the con¬
troller to keep pace with the data as it
comes in (a process known as clock
extraction).
Figure A shows why this technique is
called FM. Twice as many pulses occur
per unit of time during a string of Is
than during a string of Os, and the aver¬
age (for an even mix of Is and Os) is 1 .5
pulses per bit.
The constraint that determines how
much data you can get on a disk is sim¬
ple: There must be enough space be¬
tween pulses so that they don’t run to¬
gether. FM encoding always leaves
room for two pulses per bit, in case that
bit is a 1 . The maximum number of bits
you can have, therefore, is always half
the maximum number of pulses you can
fit in. There is, however, a way to use
fewer pulses to represent the same data.
This is the idea behind MFM (see fig¬
ure B).
In MFM, the encoding rule is as fol¬
lows: A 1 is represented by a silence fol¬
lowed by a pulse* while a 0 is repre¬
sented by one of two patterns: a pulse
RLL Encoding
followed by a silence if no pulse oc¬
curred at the end of the previous bit, or
by two silences if a pulse did occur at
the end of the previous bit.
The MFM scheme guarantees that
there will always be at least one silence
between pulses (so that they can be
packed more tightly without running to¬
gether), but no more than three (so that
a clock can still be recovered). This pat¬
tern yields an average of 0.75 pulse per
bit (assuming that 50 percent of the Os
are represented by each of the two pos¬
sible patterns), and it therefore lets you
pack the bits twice as closely together.
For this reason, when MFM floppy
disks first came out, they were called
double-density disks.
ST506 hard disk drives originally
used MFM encoding. Is there another
encoding scheme that could increase the
density still further? To answer this
question, let’s review the schemes just
discussed in terms of run lengths , the
minimum and maximum numbers of
consecutive silences in each encoding
scheme.
FM allows a minimum run length of
FM I 0 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 0 I 0 I 0 I
encoain9 JT_RJUUUUULJ1_JL_
Figure A: In FM encoding, each bit is represented either by a pulse and
a silence (0) or by two consecutive pulses (1).
MFM I1I0I0I1I1I0I0I
encoding fl fl fl fl fl
Figure B: In the MFM encoding scheme, all pulses are separated by at least one
silence. Since the amount of data that can fit on a disk depends on the closeness
of successive pulses, MFM allows twice the data density ofFM encoding.
2,7 RLL
encoding
1 I 1 I 0 I
_ fl
0
0 I
_R
I 1 I 0 | 1 I
ji _ n _
Figure C: Here ’s how a sample bit pattern is encoded in the 2,7 RLL scheme.
Each code group is 4 to 8 half-bits long and is encoded from a code group
of 2 to 4 data bits. The length of the pattern corresponds to the length of the
original data, but the pulses are guaranteed to maintain the required minimum
and maximum spacings.
This scheme had many advantages for
computer manufacturers. Rather than
having to design controllers for the
ST506, SMD, or other disk drive inter¬
faces, the companies could provide one
interface— SCSI— and let the user or a
systems integrator attach an intelligent
controller and a matching disk drive. In
theory, a computer that uses a SCSI in¬
terface to communicate with its disk
drives needs to know little about their
physical or electrical characteristics, and
it can often find out what it needs to
know by querying the disk drives them¬
selves over the SCSI bus.
This device independence has proved
attractive to manufacturers of other
kinds of peripherals. You’ll see SCSI in¬
terfaces on tape drives, floppy disk
drives, Bernoulli boxes, portable RAM
disks, and even Ethernet controllers. (At
least some of the more esoteric SCSI
peripherals were developed because
Apple’s Macintosh Plus and SE com¬
puters have little or no internal expansion
capability but do have a SCSI port on the
back.) Most disk drive manufacturers
now offer products with embedded SCSI
controllers, eliminating the need for a
controller board between the SCSI bus
and the disk drive.
SCSI has evolved and changed greatly
over the years. The original SASI inter-
296 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
HANDS ON
UNDER THE HOOD
0 (it’s possible to have no silences be¬
tween pulses) and a maximum run
length of 1 (there’s always a clock pulse
after a silence). So, one way to describe
FM is as 0,1 run-length-limited encod¬
ing, or 0, 1 RLL for short.
Similarly, MFM always has at least
one silence between the pulses, but no
more than three— making it 1,3 RLL.
It’s the minimum run length that deter¬
mines how tightly data can be packed
onto the disk, while the maximum run
length determines how accurate the con¬
troller must be at timing when the pulses
come in (so that it can generate a clock
to go with the data).
The encoding scheme we know sim¬
ply as RLL is usually 2,7 RLL (see fig¬
ure C and table A). It uses a more com¬
plex set of rules to determine the pulse
pattern for each bit based on the values
of the preceding bits, but the principle is
the same: There are fewer pulses, but
their precise positions convey more in¬
formation about the original data
pattern.
Table A: The 2, 7 RLL scheme
encodes groups of 2 to 4 bits into
pulse patterns. Note that there
are always at least two, and no
more than seven, silences
between pulses regardless of
the combination of bits encoded.
Data bits
to be
encoded
2,7 RLL encoding
(0 = silence,
1 = pulse)
0 0
10 0 0
0 1
0 10 0
1 0 0
0 0 1 0 0 0
1 0 1
10 0 10 0
110 0
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
110 1
0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0
1 1 1
0 0 0 1 0 0
face transferred data at a maximum rate
of 1.5 megabytes per second; enhance¬
ments in SCSI allowed synchronous
transfers at up to 4 megabytes per sec¬
ond. The SCSI-2 specification, which
has already been adopted by many manu¬
facturers and is soon to be an ANSI stan¬
dard, will allow transfers at up to 10
megabytes per second, and it provides
for an optional 16-bit or 32-bit data path
for even faster transfers. It also contains
provisions for caching disk drive control¬
lers, printers, communications control¬
lers, CD-ROMs, WORMs, and erasable
optical disks.
Using all the capabilities of SCSI-2,
it’s theoretically possible to transfer data
at a blazing speed of 40 megabytes per
second— far faster than most microcom¬
puters now available could accept it.
Real-life implementations, however,
will probably not provide this capability
for quite some time.
A thorough description of SCSI could
(and, in fact, does) fill several thick vol¬
umes. The important thing to note about
SCSI is that it supports a far wider vari¬
ety of devices than any of the interfaces
I’ve mentioned previously— without nec¬
essarily imposing a penalty in speed.
Given the right hardware and software, a
SCSI interface can support not only your
disk drives, but also a large number of
other peripherals that would otherwise
require separate controller cards.
There are some incompatibilities in
the command structures used by differ¬
ent machines to talk to different devices,
but industry specialists are even now
working on a new standard called com¬
mon access method (CAM) to eliminate
these problems. All in all, the future of
SCSI looks bright. Perhaps this is why
Sun, Apple, and NeXT (among others)
have opted to use SCSI as their exclusive
interface to hard disk drives.
Intelligent Peripheral Interface
IPI is a standard designed for high-end
systems like mainframes from IBM,
CDC, and Unisys. Among the features it
supports are long cable lengths (up to 125
meters), large numbers of disk drives,
and very high data transfer rates (80
megabits per second and above). IPI uses
multiple controllers that can be highly
intelligent and can hide physical device
characteristics.
You’re not likely to see IPI on micro¬
computers in the near future— or maybe
ever. But due to its higher speed, it will
probably supplant SMD as a standard for
large storage devices in the mainframe
world.
Choosing an Interface
What does all this mean to you as a user?
The vintage ST506 interface, available
on the largest number of hard disk drives
sold today, can be a bargain. This is es¬
pecially true if you have a computer like
the IBM PC AT, which comes equipped
with a controller for these drives. If you
currently have an ST506-type controller
on your machine, you may wish to move
to an RLL controller to squeeze the last
bit of storage out of your drive. This is
recommended, however, only if your
drive is RLL-certified. (If you buy both
a drive and a controller from a competent
dealer, the dealer should sell you only an
RLL drive with an RLL controller.)
If you’re buying a new machine or up-
U Itimately,
the performance you get
from your disk drive
will depend on more
than just the interface.
Other features may be
more of a factor.
grading one without a hard disk drive,
you should consider ESDI or SCSI— es¬
pecially if you want top performance. If
SCSI is available, you will acquire the
possibility of connecting to tape drives
and other devices. SMD may be a useful
solution if you need to hook up to an
existing disk drive with that same inter¬
face, but SMD probably is not a good
solution if you’re going to buy new disk
drives.
Ultimately, the performance you get
from your disk drive will depend on more
than just the interface. Features that may
have a far more dramatic effect than the
interface alone include the quality of
your software, the interleave factor on
your disk drive, and the presence or ab¬
sence of caching. Be sure to take all these
factors into account when selecting your
hard disk drive system. ■
Special thanks to I. Dal Allen of ENDL
Consulting for his help in preparing this
article. Also, thanks to Steve Gibson of
Gibson Research, who first successfully
explained to me how RLL encoding
worked.
Brett Glass is a freelance programmer,
author, and hardware designer residing
in Palo Alto, California. He can be
reached on BIX as “glass. ”
Your questions and comments are wel¬
come. Write to: Editor, BYTE, One
Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH
03458.
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 297
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300 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
HANDS ON
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED ■ Rick Grehan
Part 2
Trees ’n Keys
Now that we have
the keys, let’s look
at the data in
our keyed file system
Last month I introduced the B-
tree as a data structure well-
suited to the manipulation of
keyed file systems. Some read¬
ers may already recognize the structure
as the basis of what are referred to as
ISAM (indexed-sequential access meth¬
od) file systems. Indeed , with the rou¬
tines I’ve presented so far* you can ac¬
cess data in indexed fashion (the
SEEK ^KEY routine) or in sequential
fashion (the SEEK_NEXT_K E Y rou¬
tine). The culmination of this three- part
series will be an ISAM system that I call
ZSAM (because I did a lot of the original
development of it on ZDOS, Zenith’s
version of MS-DOS). ZSAM is a collec¬
tion of assembly language routines call¬
able from Turbo C.
This month I'll finish describing the
key -file side of the system and move on to
examining the data file— in many ways,
the real meat.
Messy, but Necessary
Some databases may never need a DE-
LETE_KEY routine. A good example
would be a library catalog system: En¬
tries are searched for or added, but never
removed. Unfortunately, not all data¬
bases are add-only; customers join and
resign, students graduate, and accounts
payable transactions are posted at year’s
end. The pseudocode for the DELETE^
KEY routine, which handles the job of
key removal, is in listing 1.
Deleting a key assumes that the key is
in the tree. So, DBLETEJCEY begins
by calling SEEK^KEY to verify the tar¬
get’s existence and set the roving pointer.
Next, DELETE_KEY determines
whether the key is on a leaf node (NULL
key-node pointers imply that it's a leaf)
and, if so. simply collapses the node at
the target site. The keys to the right of the
target slide one position to the left, over¬
writing the deleted key. Then the node’s
keycount is decremented.
However, the key may not be on a leaf;
in this case, collapsing the node won’t
work because the deleted key is flanked
by two key -node pointers that would
need to be merged somehow into one. So,
DELETE_KEY locates the target key’s
inorder successor, overwrites the target
with its successor key, and loops back
into itself to remove the successor key
from the node it was originally on. This
preserves the relationship among the
keys in the B-tree. As you can see in list¬
ing I, DELETEJKEY uses SEEK_
NEXTJKEY (which I described last
month) to find the inorder successor. (A
key’s inorder successor will always be on
a leaf node. You might want to sketch a
few B-trees to convince yourself of this.)
As keys are deleted from a node, that
node becomes emptier and emptier until
it’s deleted right out of existence. Some
sort of maintenance has to go on inside of
DELETE„KEY, or a B-tree that’s had
lots of keys deleted from it could end up
with nearly empty nodes scattered
throughout. This fragmentation degrades
performance since the software wastes
time reading nearly empty nodes from
disk. To combat this, the DELETE^
KEY routine uses a scheme to merge
nodes whenever possible. When DE-
LET E_KEY removes a key from a node,
it checks the node's adjacent siblings to
see if two less-than-full nodes can be
combined. This process is described in
more detail in the text box “Combating
Empty Nodes” on page 302.
Finally, DELETEJKEY always exits
via a call to SEEK_KEY. As with last
month’s CREATE^KEY routine, this is
necessary to keep the roving pointer and
the pseudostack intact. Of course, the
continued
ILLUSTRATION: PAUL FISCH © 1989
FEBRUARY 1989 - B Y T E 301
HANDS ON
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
Combating Empty Nodes
Though I could sling a lot of mathe¬
matics around to prove it, just plain
common sense should tell you that a El-
tree’s performance will suffer if its
nodes are kept less than full. The sys¬
tem has to read nodes in from the disk;
therefore, if you keep those nodes as
full as possible, the software can get
more work done per disk read. (Disk ac¬
cess is certainly the speed bottleneck of
the system.)
Two actions contribute to “node
emptying” in the B-tree. First and most
obvious is deleting a key. You can com¬
bat this by merging nodes, as illustrated
in figure A.
In the first part of the figure, a key
has just been deleted from a node, leav¬
ing only one key— Gail— left on that
node. The software checks that node’s
sibling and discovers that the right sib¬
ling holds only two keys. Since this is an
order-4 B-tree, the original node, the
father key, and the right sibling can be
combined into a single node, as shown
in figure A2.
Notice that since the key Hank has
migrated down the tree, Kelly is now
left alone on a node. If Kelly has sib¬
lings, the software can attempt to merge
nodes on that level, and the process can
continue up the tree all the way to the
root, if necessary. (As you may have no¬
ticed, merging is simply the reverse of
the splitting process that CREATE_
KEY used.)
Splitting a node also causes nodes to
become more empty, since after a split
at least two nodes will be half empty.
You can defer splitting a node until it be¬
comes absolutely necessary by using
local rotation , as in figure B. In the first
part of the figure, the key Henry has
been inserted, causing that node to be¬
come over-full. Instead of splitting the
node, however, the software can exam¬
ine that node’s siblings to see if they’re
full. In the second part of the figure,
the software has determined that the
node’s right sibling can hold an extra
key and so rotates a key through the
father and into the sibling.
Figure A: A sample order-4 B-tree. (1) A key has been deleted, leaving Gail
all alone on its node. (2) Merging Gail with the father key and right sibling
reduces two near-empty nodes to a single full node. Of course, the node
containing Kelly might now be merged with its sibling.
Figure B: Inserting Henry in this order-4 B-tree (1) causes a node to become over-full and in need of splitting.
Splitting can be avoided (2) if the overflow is allowed to spill into a less-than-full sibling through the father. Notice that if
the overflowed node had not been a leaf, then Henry's rightmost key-node pointer in the first part of the figure would
become Jake ’s leftmost key-node pointer in part 2.
302 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
HANDS ON
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
key that SEEKJKEY is looking for has
been deleted, so DELETEJKEY clears
the error code that SEEK_KEY has set.
Thus, you can perform a SEEK_NEXT_
KEY immediately after a DELETE_
KEY and get the result you’d expect:
That is, SEEK_NEXT_KEY will return
the inorder successor of the key just
deleted.
The Data
Though I’ve spent a great deal of time
discussing searching for keys, the true
destination of a search is the data. The
keys merely serve as mnemonics, point¬
ing to the information in the data file that
you were trying to get to in the first
place.
Typically, you find that the contents of
a database are easily grouped into cate¬
gories— attributes, if you wish— that the
database associates with each entry. So,
for example, each entry in a customer list
would include the name, address, phone
number, and current balance. All entries
have the same structure, and this makes
it easy to construct the data-file side of
the database as a set of records of con¬
stant size.
The first type of data file that ZSAM
supports is accessed as a set of fixed-
length records, one record to each key.
I’ll refer to this kind of data file as a sim¬
ple data file, thanks to its easy-to-under-
stand structure. Conceptually, it’s just
like the sample keyed file system I
showed in figure 1 of last month’s col¬
umn. Handling simple data files is. . .
well. . .simple, and I won’t go into it in
detail. Whenever the system needs to at¬
tach a simple data record to a key, it
records that record’s offset in the data
pointer associated with the correct key.
Deleting simple data records is also
simple.
However, some databases may not fit
well into a one-record-per-key format.
What if your database is running in a
video rental parlor? You’ll want to be
able to place multiple records in a client’s
account to allow customers to rent an ar¬
bitrary number of videotapes at any
given time. One solution would be to
create a keyed-record entry for each tape
the customer rents, but this adds keys to
the key file, where they’re not really
needed. Another solution would be to
allow records to vary in size, but this
turns handling deleted records into a
nightmare; essentially, you’d be dealing
with a disk-based heap.
ZSAM supports a second kind of data
file that I’ll refer to as a complex data
file. A complex data file allows a single
continued
Listing 1: The pseudocode for the DELETEJKEY routine.
{ Delete CURRENT_KEY .
DELETE_KEY :
SEEK_KEY ( CURRENT_KEY ) ;
IF key not found THEN
RETURN key-not- found error;
{ We do the following so that, after the key is deleted, the system can
{ call DELETE_RECORD_SET to delete the associated data record.
Load CURRENT_DATA_PTR ;
LO:
IF key at KEYOFFSET's left or right key-node pointer is 0 THEN
BEGIN { The key is on a leaf.}
NEW_N0DE = bitwise OR of left key-node pointer and right
key-node pointer;
LI:
Left key-node pointer {at KEYOFFSET} = NEW_N0DE;
Set left key-node pointer {at KEYOFFSET} to bitwise or of left key-
node pointer and right key-node pointer;
TEMP = left key-node pointer;
Copy contents of key node starting at KEYOFFSET+1 to the left 1
key position {overwriting target key};
Decrement node's KEYCOUNT by 1;
IF KEYCOUNT = 0 THEN
{ The entire node has been deleted. The TEMP holds what may
{ be the node's only child. Pop the pseudostack for the node's
{ father and overwrite to pointer to the dead node with TEMP.
BEGIN
POP ( CURRENT_KEY_SECTOR , KEYOFFSET ) ;
IF P0P() FAILED THEN
R00T=TEMP;
ELSE
{ Put the key pointer in the deleted node's father.
BEGIN
GET(CURRENT_KEY_SECTOR) ;
Key-node pointer at KEYOFFSET = TEMP;
PUT ( CURRENT_KEY_SECTOR ) ;
END
CALL SEEK_KEY;
RETURN no error;
END
{ At this point, not all keys were removed from the node. See if the
{ node can be merged with one of its siblings.
TEMP_COUNT = current node's KEYCOUNT;
PUT ( CURRENT_KEY_SECTOR) ;
POP ( P0P_N0DE , P0P_0FFSET ) ;
IF P0P() failed THEN {Can't pop? At root.}
BEGIN
CALL SEEK_KEY ;
RETURN no error;
END
GET(P0P_N0DE);
{ Put the father node in WORKING_KEY buffer.
Move KEY_N0DE[] to WORKING_KEY buffer;
MAXKEYS = maximum number of keys allowed on a node;
SIBLING_NODE = NULL;
IF TEMP_COUNT + left sibling's KEYCOUNT + 1 <=
MAXKEYS THEN
SIBLING_NODE = left sibling;
ELSE
IF TEMP_COUNT + right sibling's KEYCOUNT +
1 <= MAXKEYS THEN
SIBLING_NODE = right sibling;
IF SIBLING_NODE NOT = NULL THEN
BEGIN {Do a merge}
GET ( CURRENT_KEY_SECTOR) ;
Attach key at P0P_0FFSET from WORKING_KEY buffer to
end of KEY_N0DE[] ;
continued
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 303
HANDS ON
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
Attach keys on SIBLING_NODE to end of KEY_N0DE[] ;
Update current node's keycount;
PUT ( CURRENT_KEY_SECTOR ) ;
NEW.NODE = CURRENT_KEY_SECTOR;
Put SIBLING_NODE on available-for-use list;
Move WORKING_KEY buffer to KEY_N0DE[] ;
CURRENT_KEY_SECTOR = P0P_N0DE;
CURRENT_KEY_OFFSET = POP.OFFSET;
GOTO LI; { Remove father key and repeat.}
END
END
ELSE {Flanking key-node pointers are not empty.}
BEGIN
Copy KEY_N0DE [ ] to WORKING_KEY buffer;
TEMP = CURRENT_KEY_SECTOR ;
{ The following call will leave the successor key's node in the
{ KEY_N0DE[] buffer.
CALL SEEK_NEXT_KEY ;
Copy successor key over target key;
Swap KEY_N0DE [ ] and WORKING.KEY buffer;
PUT (TEMP);
Swap KEY_N0DE [ ] and WORKING_KEY buffer;
{ Now the target's inorder successor is removed from its original
{ node via a reentry into the delete routine.
GOTO LO;
END
Figure 1: A complex datafile allows a single key to reference a record set— a doubly
linked list of an arbitrary number of records.
key to point to a list of records. So, the
data record pointer in a keyed file points
to the head of a doubly linked list of
records in a complex data file; I’ll refer
to such a list as a record set. The struc¬
ture of a record set is shown in figure 1 .
The data pointer in the keyed file
points to the first record (the head
record) in the record set. Each member
of the set has two pointers prefixed: a
forward link, which points to the next
record in the set, and a backward link,
which points to the previous record in the
set. As with simple data files, all records
in a complex data file are of the same
length. This makes managing deleted
records easy, since deleting or reusing a
deleted record requires only that you ma¬
nipulate pointers. But since there’s no
real limit to the number of records that
can be in a record set, you can attach ar¬
bitrarily long hunks of data to a single
key.
A new record added to a record set is
attached to the tail (the new record be¬
comes the new tail), so you’ll need to be
able to find the record set’s tail as soon as
you access the set. Notice that the back¬
ward link of the head record points to the
tail, so that when the system performs a
SEEK.KEY and retrieves the key and its
associated data pointer to the record set
head, only one additional access is
needed to get to the tail.
The records’ forward and backward
links allow for easy maneuvering
through the record set. This should be¬
come apparent as you examine the rou¬
tines that follow.
Doing It Complex
Getting to the start of a record set is easy.
Any routine that would read a record in a
simple data file (e.g., SEEK_KEY,
SEEK_NEXT_KEY, or CREATE.
A
ny
routine that would read
a record in a simple
datafile retrieves
a pointer to the first
record of the record set
in a complex datafile.
KEY) retrieves a pointer to the first
record of the record set in a complex data
file. Furthermore, those routines load a
set of internal pointers that keep track of
where you are in the record set, where the
head of the record set is, and where the
tail is. You’ll see the importance of these
pointers in a moment. (Though I didn’t
express this explicitly in last month’s
pseudocode, the ZSAM routines do han¬
dle the internal pointers as I’ve described
here.)
Once you’re at the head of the set,
you’ll want to be able to access the
records in sequential order. You do this
with a call to R E A D_N EXT_R ECOR D
(see listing 2), which simply follows the
forward pointer chain. If, in the process
of reading through the record set, you at¬
tempt to read past the tail, READ.
NEXT.RECORD returns an appropri¬
ate error code.
Some algorithms may require you to
reset the internal pointers to the head of
the current record set. You would accom¬
plish this with REWIND.SET (see list¬
ing 3), which is a lot like the REWIND
routine that I described last month; if you
call READ.NEXT.RECORD after
REWIND.SET, the routine will return
the first record in the set. Notice that
REWIND.SET simply loads the CUR-
R ENT.DATA.PT R with the head
304 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
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record’s number.
As I mentioned before, new records
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pended to the tail; records in a record set
are not sorted (and they shouldn’t be; if
you want records sorted, you should give
each one a key and use a simple data
file). APPEND_RECORD (see listing 4)
adds a new record to the current record
set; the appended record becomes the
new tail. (If you’re wondering how RE-
continued
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Listing 2: The READ_NEXT_RECORD routine provides sequential access
of the elements in a data record set.
{ This routine reads the next data record in a record set.
READ_NEXT_RECORD :
IF data file is not complex THEN
RETURN data file not complex error;
IF CURRENT_DATA_PTR invalid THEN
RETURN data pointer invalid error;
{ If DFLAG =1 then we are "between" records. This happens if we've just
{ deleted a record; fortunately, CURRENT_DATA_PTR is set to the
{ deleted record's forward link, so all we have to do is clear DFLAG.
IF DFLAG = 1 THEN
BEGIN
DFLAG=0;
GET ( C URRENT_DATA_PTR ) ;
RETURN contents of data record;
END
IF forward link = 0 THEN { We are at the tail.}
RETURN end of record set error;
CURRENT_DATA_PTR = forward link;
GET ( CURRENT_DATA_PTR ) ;
Load forward and backward links of CURRENT_DATA_PTR ;
RETURN contents of data record;
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Listing 3: REWIND_SET sets internal pointers back to a record set’s logical
start so that a subsequent call to READ _N EXT _RECORD will return the
record set ’s head record.
{ Move to the head record of a record set
REWIND_SET:
IF data file is not complex THEN
RETURN data file not complex error;
CURRENT_DATA_PTR = head record;
RETURN;
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Listing 4: APPEND_RECORD adds a new record to a record set .
{ This routine appends a new data record to the current record set
{ The information to be placed in the record is in RECSTRING.
APPEND_RECORD :
IF data file is not complex THEN
RETURN data file not complex error;
{ GET_NEW_RECORD() returns a pointer to an empty,
{ ready-for-use record.
NEW.PTR = GET_NEW_RECORD( ) ;
HEAD_PTR = Head record number; {of current set}
TAIL_PTR = Tail record number; {of current set}
Forward link of NEW_PTR = 0;
Backward link of NEW_PTR = TAIL_PTR;
Copy contents of RECSTRING into NEW_PTR's data area;
PUT(NEW_PTR) ; { Write the new record to disk.}
Backward pointer of HEAD_PTR = NEW_PTR;
Forward pointer of TAIL_PTR = NEW_PTR;
RETURN;
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 305
HANDS ON
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
A Message
To Our
Subscribers
From time to time
we make the BYTE sub¬
scriber list available to other
companies who wish to send
our subscribers material about
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choosing only those who are
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Direct mail is an efficient
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Many BYTE subscribers ap¬
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Used are our subscribers’ names
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While we believe the distribu¬
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306 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Listing 5: The pseudocode for DELETE _RECORD_SET.
{ This routine puts an entire record set on the available-for-reuse
{ list. This list is pointed to by DAV.
DELETE_RECORD_SET :
HEAD_PTR = Head record number;
TAIL_PTR = Tail record number;
Forward link of TAIL_PTR = DAV;
DAV = HEAD_PTR;
RETURN;
Figure 2: Once DELETE_KEY has removed the associated key, deleting an entire
record set is simply a matter of attaching the set to the available-for-reuse list.
(a) Before deleting, DAV points to the first member of the available-for-reuse list.
(b) After deleting, DAV is set to the head record of the set, and the forward link of
the tail holds DAV’s old contents. The backward links are now superfluous.
WIND_SET and APPEND_RECORD
knew the location of the head and tail
records, remember that I said the ZSAM
routines that initially access a record set
store pointers to the head and tail in¬
ternally.)
Deleting members of a record set is
slightly more complex than deleting sim¬
ple records. It involves manipulating
pointers to keep the list intact (deleting
an entire set is easy; see figure 2 and list¬
ing 5). Follow these steps (you might
want to draw this process out on paper),
and you won’t get confused:
1. Copy the deleted record’s forward
pointer into the forward pointer of the
previous record.
HANDS ON
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
Circle 9 on Reader Service Card
Listing 6: DELETE_RECORD removes a record from a record set.
{ This routine deletes a data record from a record set.
DELETE.RECORD:
IF data file is not complex THEN
RETURN data file not complex error;
IF CURRENT_DATA_PTR invalid THEN
RETURN data pointer invalid error;
IF CURRENT_DATA_PTR points to head record THEN
{ We are deleting the head record. See if the head record is also the
{ tail record and, if so, delete the entire record set.
IF CURRENT_DATA_PTR points to tail record THEN
BEGIN
CALL DELETE_RECORD_SET ;
RETURN record set deleted error;
END
ELSE
BEGIN
TEMP_PTR = CURRENT.DAT A_PTR's forward link.
Copy contents of TEMP_PTR's data record into
CURRENT_DATA_PTR * s data record.
END
ELSE
BEGIN
TEMP_PTR = CURRENT_DATA_PTR's forward link;
END
{ At this point, we've determined we are not deleting the head record.
PREV_REC = CURRENT_DATA_PTR ' s backward link;
NEXT.REC = CURRENT_DATA_PTR's forward link;
Set PREV.REC's forward link to NEXT_REC ;
Set NEXT_REC's backward link to PREV_REC;
Put CURRENT_DATA_PTR on available- for-reuse list;
CURRENT_DATA_PTR=TEMP_PTR ;
DFLAG=1; {Show that we are between records.}
RETURN;
2. Copy the deleted record’s backward
pointer into the next record’s back¬
ward pointer.
The record is now out of the chain and
can be moved onto the list of records
available for reuse.
What happens when you delete the
head of a record set? The head is what the
data pointer in the key file is aimed at; if
you delete the head, won’t that data
pointer now be pointing off to a dead
record?
Well, it won’t if you don’t physically
delete the first record, and you can pull
off this dodge by copying the contents of
the second record on top of the contents
of the head, then physically deleting the
second record. The pseudocode for DE-
LETE_RECORD is in listing 6.
We Have the Technology . . .
Actually, the doubly linked list structure
of the record set allows for more routines
than I’ve shown here. You might want to
add a READ_PREVIOUS_RECORD
routine that moves “up” the record set by
following the backward links. And once
you’ve got that, surely you’ll want a
function called UNREWIND_SET,
which moves the internal pointers to the
tail record.
Though I cannot think of any uses for
those routines, that doesn’t mean that
uses are not out there, and it would cer¬
tainly make the complex data-file han¬
dling routines more plenary.
Next Month
I’ll put everything together with ZSAM,
a B-tree keyed file system based on the
routines I’ve presented. ZSAM is written
in 8088 assembly language interfaced to
Borland’s Turbo C. I’ll also give a sam¬
ple real-life application for ZSAM. ■
Author’s note: The source code for
ZSAM will be available as of next month.
Look for details in the March column.
Rick Grehan is a BYTE senior technical
editor at large. He has a BS in physics
and applied mathematics and an MS in
computer science /mathematics from
Memphis State University. He can be
reached on BIX as ,(rick_g. ”
Your questions and comments are wel¬
come. Write to: Editor, BYTE, One
Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH
03458.
Tools and Toolboxes
Modula-2
Applications Generator
Amadeus $ 395
Generate Modula-2 programs directly from your own input,
and save yourself hours of coding!
Graphics
M2Graph* 65
Controls Hercules cards in Modufa*2.
M2EGA* ^ $65
Controls EGA cards in Modula-2.
Modula Graphics Toolbox I* $112
A collection of extremely fast graphics routines for CGA cards
written in Modula-2.
The Modula-2 people:
A. + L. Meier-Vogt
Im Spaten 23
CH-8906 Bonstetten/ZH
Switzerland
Tel. (41)(1)700 30 37
Modula Graphics Toolbox II* $ 188
Comprehensive package of Modula-2 procedures for all cur¬
rently available graphics cards. Includes grahics window
system, font generator, sprite handler, mouse driver, maths
routines, as weft$$pie chart, histogram and line graph func¬
tions etc. W
Input/Output
$133
LCR-Wimtow Manager*
Fast, compaif!<8^|pw system.
M2Window& $ 188
Fast, professjQpggindow system. Small, high-performance
library witfv Integrated menu system and simple mask gene-
rator. 3
Modula Mask & Menu Generator* $ 360
Development-system for creating masks and menus in
Modula-2 squk$, code. Mask. menu and frame editor. Sup¬
ports all coloursami attributes.
Other Tools
M2 Prolib 4
Thee
$495
$290
$59
$30
$188
B-Tree ISAM
Ultra fast database
Pascal-Moduia Converter
Converts Turttortecal to Modula-2.
RTA-Utility Disk
2-10x faster 1/0, extended MathLib.
EMS-r Utilities*
Make full use of your Megabytes of memory expansion.
M2IE£E-lnterface* $ 144
Modular 2 interface to National Instruments IEEE Interface.
This is only a small selection fr6m our comprehensiyefist of
tools for Modula-2. Demo disks are available^ for products
marked, with an asterisk. Send $ 10 for
"«/•$' seven. There is also a wide
l&fflMai Modula-2.
jttMWa-2 compiler^g^j
' INTERFACE
TECHNOLOGIES
3336 Richmond, Suite 323
Houston, TX 77098-9990 (713) 523 8422
Dealer inquiries welcome
International
Austria: 0222/4545010
Belgium: 071/366133
France: 20822662
Italy: 02/405174
Scandinavia: +45/3/512014
Switzerland: 01/9455432
United Kingdom: 01/6567333
Germany: 02983/8337;
0731/26932;
0821/85737;
04106/3998;
0531/347121
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 307
-The Buyer’s Mart-
A Directory of Products and Services
THE BUYER'S MART is a monthly advertising section which enables readers
fo easily focate suppliers by product category. As a unique feature, each
BUYER'S MART ad includes a Reader Service number to assist interested
readers in requesting information from participating advertisers.
RATES: 1x-$525 3x-$5GG 6x-$475 12x-$425
Prepayment must accompany each insertion, VISA/MC Accepted.
AD FORMAT: Each ad will be designed and typeset by BYTE. Advertisers must
furnish typewritten copy. Ads can include headline (23 characters maximum),
descriptive text (250 characters is recommended, but up to 350 characters can
be accomodated), plus company name, address and telephone number, Do not
send logos or camera-ready artwork,
DEADLINE: Ad copy is due approximately 2 months prior to issue date. For ex¬
ample: November issue closes on September 8. Send your copy and payment
to THE BUYER'S MART, BYTE Magazine, 1 Phoenix Mill Une, Peterborough,
NH 03458, For more information call 603-924-3754.
ACCESSORIES
CUT RIBBON COSTS!
Re-ink your printer ribbons quickly and easily. Do air
cartridge ribbons with Just one inker! For crisp, black
professional print since 1 932. You can choose tram 3
models: Manual E-Ze-e Inker — $39,50
Electric E-Zee Inker — $89.50
Ink Master (Eleclric) — $159,00
JOOO's of satisfied users in 5 years. Money back guarantee.
BORG INDUSTRIES
525 MAIN ST., JANESVtLLE, IA &0647
1-800-553-2404 In IOWA 319-887-2978
Inquiry 576.
SELF-INKING PRINTER RIBBON
Awaked United Slates Patent #4701062
Lasts 10- IS times longer live convuntionfli ribbon
For printers using 1*“ widlh upon spool ribbon:
Okidaia fl2A-fl3A 8^-92‘93 Dec LA I0OV12O
Totel/poSS, 35 Dec LA 30rtE3M 1443
Star G&num lOX leif^ype-McKlcuC
Extd Tl eOWfllO. 020. ABO
Corf.acr us by m!kl. pbcrvs or Me* ;mt: we wiE Icrward you a bfochure.
CONTROLLED PRINTOUT DEVICES, INC.
POB 059, Baldwin Rd„ Arden, NC 28704
[704) 694-9044 • TELEX: (FILMON-AREN) 577454
Inquiry 577.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
EXPERT SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
Gel I he award winning AGIME55 to develop network
based expert systems using multiple inference
methods, the Merit scheme lor efficient dale coHeclion,
and unique explanallon facilities, Use Ihe AGNES5
C_tfllk Toolkit lo embed an expert system into ydur
application under an abject oriented environment.
$795.
Applied Information Systems, Inc.
£117 West Hoyt Awe., St. Paul, MM 55108
_ (612) 641-9947 _
Inquiry 578.
NATURAL LANGUAGE SOFTWARE
Use JAKE to create a front end lo your database, game,
or graphics program! JAKE translates English queries
and commands into C function calls sod data struc¬
tures. JAKE offers contest-sensitive semantic process-
ing; interfaces easily: <64K mem.
$495, INTERACTIVE OEMO $10
ENGLISH KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS, INC-
S525 Scotts Valley Dc. *22. &cotts Valley, CA 95066
(408) 438-6922 _
Inquiry 579.
NanoUSP $09.99
An MS-DOS Common, LISP interpreter that sup-
ports most Common LISP operations and strictly
adheres lo the standard. Numerous advanced and
extra leatures, excellent debugging facilities, sam¬
ple Al programs, fuliy-indexed manual, bee
technical support.
Microcomputer Systems Consultants
P.O. Bqk 6646. Santa Barbara, CA931BO
(SO 5) 967-2270
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
NEW EXPERT SYSTEM
FlfstEiperl - A unique craped systems tocf Ihal you can master
in a few hours! Generates iho complete system based on your
specification! Built-in learning procedure automatically
creates knowledgebase. Interactive structured induction
allows you to add new knowledge at any time, includes con¬
sultancy system. Handles up to 10.000 rules on a PC! Demos
included! t&M pc's /PS-2’8.
An ingenious program, buy now far onty $$9£5. Sffi add F5W
Nova Cast Expert Systems
2530 Berrygssa Rd- Suite 607. San Jose, CA 95132
(408) 272*4071 Fax: (408) 437-7777
Inquiry 580,
Buy your own Book
Get a fully supported LISP program for
the MAG without the padded price to
pay for an expensive book, $20 buys
it MAC plus or equivalent runs it. Order
now and save.
Oosson Software
Box 33113, Coon Rapids, MN 55433
Inquiry 581,
muLISP " 87 for MS-DOS
Fast, compact, efficient LISP programming environ¬
ment muLISP programs run 2 to 3 times fasler &
taka Vt to Vi the space of other LESPs. 45D Com¬
mon LISP functions, mulli^fndow editing* & debug
Bing, Ifavpts. graphics prim i lives, lessons & help,
demo programs, comprehensive manual.
Soft Warehouse, Inc.
3615 Harding Aim.. Suite 505, Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 734-5801
Inquiry 582.
BAR CODE
PRINT BAR CODES, BIG TEXT, LOGOS
On EPSON, IBM, OKI (fat matrix or LaserJet. Design any tor-
mal/sizeon ONE easy screen. M2C flefdaflabel. 13 text sties
lo r - readable at SO ft. ArAG, MIL-STD, 2 of 5, 120v
UPCfEAN, Code 39. File fnpul, FAST-$2?9. Logos, Product
Symbols- Other menu-driven bar code programs from $49.
30 day $ back.
Worthington Data Solutions
417A innsiis Si , Sana Dun. CA 95090
(800) 345-4220 In CA: (40B) 458-9938
BAR CODE READERS
From the manufacturer for PC/XT/AT, & PS/2. At¬
taches as 2nd keyboard, reads as keyed data. Ex¬
ternal or bus install. With steel wand— $399. Sup¬
ports All Woveil ! Kimtron, Link, Wyse, RS-232. Sup¬
ports Alloy PC-TERM. Portables, Users, Badge.
30 day $ back.
Worthington Data Solutions
4i7 A Ingalls St , Santo Cruz, CA 95060-
(800) 345-4220 In CA: (408) 458-0938
BAR CODE
PRINT BAR COOES/BIG TEXT
FROM YOUR PROGRAM
Add bar codes and big graphics text to your program.
Prjnt from ANY MS-DOS language. Bar codes: UPC.
EAN, 2 of 5, MSI, Code 39. Epson, Oki, IBM dot matrix
text up to Vi". Laser Jet up to T . Font cart ridges not
required. $159-$239. 30 day $$ back.
Worthington Data Solutions
417A Infills $L. Santa Cruz. CA 95C60
(600) 345-4220 In CA; (408) 458-9938
COMPLETE LINE
OF BAR CODE PRODUCTS
• PrintBar II • PrintBar Softfonts
• PrintBar I • CodeScan 2000
FREE BROCHURES (918) 622-4840
Bear Rock Software Co.
6069 Enterprise Dr. PtacervHle, CA 95667
Inquiry 583.
BAR CODE SOLUTIONS
We makfl bar coding very easy with our complete line of
readers. Our PC-VYand readers not work, or work with your
keyboard or terminal, or ore carried around taking inveniory,
entering sales and clocking lime. Our bar code label print-
irvg software packages work with MS-DOS or PC^OfOS and
most matrix or laser printers. Wo also sell preprinted labels
Our hardware can work with nearty every computer in the
world.
International Technologies & Systems Corp.
835-0 North Berry Si. Brea. CA 92621
(714) 990-1880 FAX: 714 990-2503 TLX 6502824734 MCI
Inquiry 584.
BAR CODE MADE EASY
PERCON^ E-Z-READER™ keyboard inter faces and multiuser
RS-232 models make it easy to add bar cede lo virtually any
oompulernermirtfl WITHOUT SOFTWARE MODIFICATION
Immediate shipping T*o year warranty Bar code pricing
soltwaro available. Can for details on Iasi, accurate saa date
entry Substantial reseller discounts
PERCQN®
2190 W. 11th St.. Eugene. OR 97402
(503) 344-1189
PC BAR CODE SPECIALISTS
Bar code readers designed lor fast, reliable, cost
effective data entry. Looks just like keyboard data?
Choose from stainless steel wand or laser interface.
Also, powerful Bar Code and Text printing software,
Great warranty. Dealer inquiries weiceme.
Seagull Scientific Systems
15127 N.E, 24th, Suite 333, Redmond, WA 980S2
206-451-8966
308 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
The Buyer’s Mart
BAR CODE
DATA INPUT DEVICES
Bar Code 6 Magnate Snipe Readers for microcomputers 6
terminals, including JQM PS/2 & Others. DEC. Macintosh,
AT&T CT. Wyao. Wang. All readers conee# on the keyboard
cable 6 are transparent [p all sofhvare. Low cos! bar code
print programs, magnetic encoders, & portable readers are
also available. GSA canliacl *GSOQKi07AGS5a46.
TPS Electronics
4047 Transport. Palo Alio. CA 94303
415-856-8833 Telex 371-9097 TPS PLA
FAX: 415-856-3843
Inquiry 585.
CAD/CAM
PHOTO PLOTTING
tram your Sm&rtwork E<tii file or any RS-274 Gerber
Photo Plol tile Raster type Pholoplolting supplied on
.007" thick Kodak Ultra line lilm. Riot data accepted by
modem, 514" 3V?" MS-DOS format disks or 9 irack mag
tape. Gerber ptot file 8Mx10" plots slatt from 515,00.
Ceil tor details.
KEPRO CIRCUIT SYSTEMS
Fenton, WIO
1-800325-3878 / 1-314-343-1630 in MO,
Inquiry 586.
P-C-B ARTWORK MADE EASY!
Create and Revise Prlntod-CircuEt-Artwork
on your IBM or Compatible
* Help Screens - Dip & Sip Library
” Printer and Plotter Artwork * Supports Mice
* Auto-Reuter available ' ICON Menus
Requirement: IBM or Compatible PC, 3B4K RAM, DOS
3.0 or later. PCBoards: £99.00 DEMO: £1000
PCBoards
21 TO 141 h Ave. South. Birmingham, al 35205
<2051 939-1122
Inquiry 587.
P-CAD MOUSE
A quality mouse designed fo run with the P-CAD soft¬
ware. It requires one RS232C COM Port lor the con¬
nection. No external security device is needed any more.
Complele hardware and documentation for $575. Call
or write lor more information. Three years warranty.
1 Checks, COD, VISA, MC accepled.
UNITEK SYSTEM
9220 Vancouver Drive, Sacramento. CA 95826
(916) 962-6075
P-CAD trademark ol Personal CAD Sysiem. Inc.
Inquiry 588,
CASE
FINITE STATE PROGRAM COMPILERS
Stats programs develop- quicker, run faster and use less
memory than sequential programs. A raw keystrokes can
replace hundreds of instructions. The Compeditor, a CASE
software development tool, forms source siaic programs in:
Ada. BASIC, C, FORTRAN and Pascal. FOR IBM DOS.
Price S2Q0 per, fang. (Wild Primer and Debugger)
Sampler 659.00 (With ail manuals & credii)
AYECO 5025 Nassau Circle, Orlando
INCORPORATED FL 32808 (407) 295-0930
inquiry 589.
JOINT APPLICATION DESIGN
and PROTOTYPING WORKBENCH
Developers! Reduce your costs and i [Tip rove user
satisfaction. Give users a hands on feel for the
system. Build a full working model o( a system in
just hours, PC-PHOTO is easy to use, flexible, end
writes the documentation lor you. From SI 49.
Kartech, Inc. (416) 656-2032
16S Pm<*.o<xl Ave, Toronto. Ontario, Canada M6C 2VB
Inquiry 590.
CD/ROM
CD-ROM Drives & Titles
Largest selection for PC & Mac.
Microsoft Programmers Library & Drive S995
Computer Library $695 * Public Domain SM 199.
Drives irom $699. tfu/tenKfcs of Mto& from 629l
MC/V ISA/AM EX, Moneys* Guarantee.
Call or write for free 100 page catalog.
Gef it alt from 'The Bureau"
Bureau of Electronic Publishing
121 Norwood Ave.. Upper Montclair, NJ 07043
_ (2pij 746-3031 _
Inquiry 591.
Government Databases on
CD ROMs
Detailed US databases available on 5 CD-ROMs;
Economics, Labor. Agriculture. Consumers, and Food.
Soon; Health. Business, Tax. Energy and more. Includes
software lo make tables, DIF or ASCII. S65 each. MS-
DOS req. CD-ROM publishing services available.
Hopkins Technology
421 Hazel Lane, Hopkins, MN 55343
_ (612) 931-9376 CIS 74017,614
Inquiry 592.
COMMUNICATIONS
Bi-Directional File X-fers
MulLi-Gom telrjccmmuniGaLiiXin program Afters [hfi teriiowing
SrmurrjtriWtfj DownfcadingAlpisading
■ Sand/Fteteiv® Conwte Messages During File Trarrators
* lOOu Lme UriUMtesn buimg Muin-Fite Tractors
* Uses Full Duplex AOLC Prdlncol
* More EHIctenfl Than Xm«Kun. Kcurmt. elc
■ Saves Tirne and Culs CcnrtKl Crisis
Call 1m your free dtekrtte Jelormfliion.
Program Pkg.. 3ft1 li!.’ disks, manual. S499S + & rili
Multiplex Systems tm) 222-1064
PO Box 16174, Pittsburgh, PA 15242
Inquiry 593.
PC-COMM: A SERIAL DATA
COMMUNICATIONS ANALYZER
Displays bidirectional RS-232 data traffic. Logs data to
disk monitoring at 19.2K baud. Indicates errors and
RS-232 control signals. Runs on all IBM PCrATrPSZ
compatibles. Transfers binary files at 192K baud-
PC-COMM SI 65 Cable option £65 SM S5
Santa Rosa Software
39 Aidon Amb., Rohnert Park. CA 94926
T07-664 6440
Inquiry 594.
COMPUTER INSURANCE
INSURES YOUR COMPUTER
SAFE WARE provides lull replacement of hardware,
media and purchased software. As little as $39 a
year provides comprehensive coverage. Blanket
coverage; no list of equipment needed. One call
does fi all. Call 8 am-10 pm ET [Sat. 9 lo 5)
TOLL FREE 1 -800-848-3469
(Local 614-262-0559)
SAFE WARE, The Insurance Agency Inc*
Inquiry 595.
CROSS ASSEMBLERS
Retargetable Assembler
Generates code for ANY processor based on a defini¬
tions life. Definitions (or many common processors in¬
cluded or user can write cusiom ones. Full-featured:
macros, conditional assembly, segmentaiion,
relocatable code, linker, extensive manual. Fbr MSDOS
20 or greater. $195.
AnyWare Engineering
920 Eighth St., Boulder, CO 30302
(303) 442-0556 _
Inquiry 596-
CROSS ASSEMBLERS
CROSS ASSEMBLERS
Universal Linker, Librarian
Targets for 36 Microprocessors
Hosts: PC/MS DOS, micro VAX, VAX BQGQ
Developed and supported at:
ENERTEC, INC
BOX 1312, Lansdate, PA 19446
21 5-362-0966 MG/VISA
Inquiry 597.
Professional Series
Pseudocode releases rts PsoufloSam professional Series of
cross assemblers. Ma$i popular processors. Macros. Con¬
ditional Assembly, and Include f Ites. Virtually unlimited size.
For IBM PC's, MS-DOS 2.0 or greyer. With manual for S50JQ0.
{Ml res. 49b lax). Shipping £5. Canada $10. Fbreign $1&
Visa/MC, (Oealer Inquires Welcome).
KOBE Inc.
6910 Pailerson, Caledonia. Mi 49315 516-791-9333
30 Day satisfaction guaranteed or purchase price refunded.
Inquiry 598.
FANTASTIC SIMULATORS
Fbr the BW0. 0051. BOBO. BOB 5. 5 2&Q families. Full (unction
simulation including ALL MOOES o* interrupts. Buill-m
disassembler, Better Then expensive iC.E.s
CROSS ASSEMBLERS
we support the 504a 9051. sostwsoss. BC96 & 7m families.
Just S75 each.
Lear Com Company
2440 Kipding Sl./Sie, 206. Lakewood. CO B0215
303 232 2226
Inquiry 599,
CROSS ASSEMBLERS
Macros, PC Compatible, Relocatable, Condi¬
tionals, Fast, Reliable . from $150
also: Disassemblers
EPROM Programmer Board
MICROCOMPUTER TOOLS CO.
Phone (800) 443-0779
In CA (415) 825-4200
912 Hastings Dr., Concord, CA 9451 &
Inquiry 600.
SOFT-X-PLORE
See "BYTE's May '66 issue pg. 76", Disassemble 5QQ
kb (') program at K).OOCkfmin. (+) in any file, ROM/RAM
memory up to 66366 instruction set O. SOFT-X-plore;
* is for MS/DOS 2,0+ systems
* uses 20 algorithms and seven passes (’)
* only $12935 plus 56 H wf30 day guarantee.
To order call {BOG) 446-4S5G or into (293] 550-0236
Or write: R JSWANTEK INC.
178 Brobkside Rd-. Newington CT 06111
_ ' basi_on the rnarkei _ MC/ViSA ajcgprad^
Inquiry 601.
Inquiry 602.
FEBRUARY 1989 * R Y T E 309
The Buyer’s Mart
CROSS ASSEMBLERS
1
DATABASE MGMT SYSTEMSl
ASSEMBLERS & TRANSLATORS
Over 20 high quality, full function, fast relocatable
and absolute macro assemblers are available im-
mediately. Source language translators help you
change microcomputers Hosts: MS/DQS, CFM&O,
ISIS.
RELWIS"
F.Q. Box 6719, San Jose. CA 95150
(408) 356-1210
MC/VISA TWX 910-379-0014 AMEX
SOFTWARE KIT PACKAGING
OEM supplier lo one of the world's largest com¬
puter companies offers quality packaging for
your computer products. Quality products
ref [acting your companies image is our highesl
priority. Ask about PREFORMATTED DISKET¬
TES for R&D Call or write.
UNISPEC CORPORATION
4B40 Transji Road Uni! K 8. Dapcw. NY 14043
(716) 633-2010 Fax (716) 633-2813
Inquiry 603.
Inquiry 609.
DATA/DISK CONVERSION
6800-Family Development Software
Combine dot soUware and your PC lor a powerful develop¬
ment system tor toe Motorola 6800. 6BO1, 6809, and 68HC11,
Our C Compilers feature a complete impiemernpiion (e*-
cludlng bil lields) of the language as described by K&FL and
yield 30-70^ shorter code toan other compHeri. Our
Mflt&rcteeampaliblo Assemblers feature macros and condi¬
tional assembly. Linker and Terminal Emulator included.
Wintek Corporation
1801 Soulh St.. Lafayette, IN 47904
(000) 742-6609 or (317) 742-8428
QUALITY CONVERSIONS
• Disk * Scanning • Tape
‘TYPEWRITTEN $.33 per page to ASCII
"TYPESET 6-24 point Low Rales
f‘WP Formats available)
IMAGES
Logos/Line Art/Glossies
1st Run Computer Services Inc.
1361 Broadway, Suite 500, New York. NY 10OT1
(212) 779-0800
Inquiry 604,
Inquiry 610.
Z80/HD64180
Cross assemblers run or PC and are compati¬
ble with Microsoft MQQ/L80, $195.00 lor
assembler and linker. We have CP/M emulator
cards for PC. Up to 12.5 mhz Z80 clock speed,
starting al $249,951 Also Z60/HD64180 C
compilers.
Z-World
1772 Picasso Aw., Davis, CA 95616 (916) 753-3722
See our so on page 33$
Get the Expertise You Need!
Disk/Disk ■ Tape/Disk * OCR
Over 1.000 formats! 3V2. 5Y*, or 8 inch disks; 9 track
mag lape; 10 MB Bernoulli cartridge. Date base and
word processor translation. Specialists in Govern-
menl Security Data. Call lor free consultation
Computer Conversions, Inc,
9560 Black Min. Rd . Ste J. San Diego. CA 92126
(619) 693-1697
Inquiry 605,
Inquiry 611.
DATA CONVERSION
MEDIA CONVERSION/DATA TRANSLATION 1
More than just o straight dump or ASCft transfer!
Won J Processing, DBMS, and Spreadsheet data an Diaks
or Tapes transferred direcrly imp applications running pn
Mainframes. Minis, Micros, Dedicated1 Word Processors,
Typesetters, and Electronic Publishing systems.
IBM PS/2 S Macintosh supported
£1 in (he Iranstelron mduSlryl
1 Com pu Data Translators, Inc.
3325 Wflshire Blvd., Suite 1202. Los Angeles, CA 90010
(213) 387-4477 1-800-825-8251
DISK CONVERSIONS
Media transfer to or Irom: IBM. Xerox, DEC, Wang.
Lanier, CRT, Micom, NBI, CT. also WR WS,
MSAA/RD, DW4, MM, Samna, DEC DX, MAS 11,
Xerox Writer, ASCII.
FREE TEST CONVERSION
CONVERSION SPECIALISTS
531 Main Sl-^ Ste. 835, El Sag undo. CA 90245
(213) 545-6551 (213) 322-6319
Inquiry 606.
Inquiry 612.
CONVERT
W-2'S AND 1099 s
TO MAGNETIC MEDIA
FOR IRS
FROM 75£ PER RECORD
APPROVED SERVICE BUREAU
* * ■*
DataCopy Service of Texas
3306 W. Walnut #400, Garland, Texas 75042
(214) 272-7751
DISK & TAPE CONVERSIONS
AUTOMATICALLY
SAVE TIME AND MONEY
Over 1000 far mats Ir&m Mini, MLdifa Mainframe. Word Pro¬
cessors, & Typesetters
TAPE Cdm vu rsiu n i as low as £3300 MB
DISK Conversions as low as $15.00 par Disk
Call Of write TODAY far a COSl saving quotation.
CREATIVE DATA SERVICES
1210 W. Latimer Aw.. Ca mpbail, CA 9500B
(408) 8S6-6080
Inquiry 607.
Inquiry 613.
1 DATABASE MGMT SYSTEMS
1
FREE TRIAL dBASE ill CLON!!
"1 on 1 is a programmable rglaliongi DBMS , The menu
mode is a lender and more complete version pf DBases's
assistant mode. . 1 on 1 - 31 1 is a great deal tor those who
would bo glad to harvo a dBASE III PLUS clone"
** PC MAGAZINE 5/17/88 *■
Free 30 day trial tull program USA only o* Biuy now get free
upgrade. Money beck guarantee S69 + S5 S/hf chWAmw,
CAN +54. Other +5te Call or write:
1 on 1 Computer Solutions
36 Finchwwd Dr., Trumbull, CT 06611 3 03-375-0944
dBASE Hi is a trademark of Asflton-TATE
DISK INTERCHANGE
SERVICE COMPANY
DISC specializes in Iransferring files between incom¬
patible disk lormats, and between disk and 9-track tape.
■ Dedicated Word Processors
* Mini. Micro & Mainframe Computers
* 9-Track Tape (800, 1600 and 6250 BP I)
* MS DOS, CP/M, UNIX, DOS. PRODQS, TSX-h, RT11
2 Park Drive * Westlord, MA 01886
(508) 692-0050
Inquiry 608. Inquiry 614.
310 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
DATA/DISK CONVERSION
THE #1 CHOICE
In disk & tape conversion
lor many reading corporations, gavernmeni agencies,
few firms, and companies in every industry— world-wide.
Free test * Satisfaction guaranteed
Call the hefplul conversion experts. . .
Graphics Unlimited Inc.
300a Second St. North, Minneapolis, MM 5S4ti
(612) 588-7571
Inquiry 615.
MAG TAPE m m Disk
Disk <■ m Disk
* We are PC & /WAG experts
■ Lowest prices guaranteed
* AH PC's, MAChs, micros, minis & mainframes
supported.
Integrated Data Service
5439 Seneca Place, Simi Wley CA 93955
(605) 684-0023
inquiry 616,
IBM PC <»to* HP
FtL£ COPY
IBM PC to HP File Copy allows ISM PCs, PS/2, com¬
patibles lo read, write files written by Hewfetl Packard
Series 70, 80, 2D0. 30D, 1000, 9000's. We offer custom
work using our fife copy u bilies a nd program translated.
Call for estimate, catalog, date sheet.
Oswego Software 312/554-3567
507 North Adams Si Fax 312/554-3573
Oswego, Illinois 60543 Telex 658-757
Inquiry 617,
CONVERSION SERVICES
Convert any 9 track magnetic tape to or from over
1000 formats including 3 Vs". 5]A". 8" disk formats &
^voref processors. Disk lo disk conversions aiso
available Call lor more into. Introducing OCR Scan¬
ning Services
Pivar Computing Services, Inc.
165 Arlington Hgts. R<±, Dept.
Buffalo Grove. |L 60009 (312) 459*6010
Inquiry 618.
DEMOS/TUTORIALS
LEARN THE ABC'S OF 1-2-3
LEADtNG EDGE'S New Sdttvision VCR Training AC¬
CELERATES teaming LOTUS 1-2-3. You get; 84-min
videotape, workbook and practice disk, Now you're up-
te-speed on Loius 1-2-3. Just $29-95 + 2-50 P&H,
ORDER NOW. Money back if nol delighted. All major
credil cards. CALL NOW.
LIFE DYNAMICS
605Q Peachtree Pkwy. *340-226, NofarOSS, GA 3P091
(800) 548-9608 M-F 10-6
(803) S 48-5782 Ext. 12 ANYTIME
Inquiry 619.
INSTANT REPLAY III 1
Build Demos, Tutorials, Prototypes. Presentations. Music.
Timed Keyboard Macros, and Menu Systems. Includes
Screen Maker, KeystfokeTime Ediioc Program Memorivtef.
and Animator. Rec'ct Greal Reviews! Simply the BEST Not
copy protected. No royalties. 60 day satisfaction money
back guar IBM and Com pate Si 4955 US.ChWCr Crd
Demo Diskette S50O
NOSTRADAMUS, INC.
3191 Soulh Valley Slreel (ste 252)
Salt Lake City, Utah 64109 (801) 487-9562
Inquiry 620.
The Buyer’s Mart
DISK COMPATIBILITY
IB M PC’s USE Mac DISKS
MatchMaker lets you plug any Macintosh exter¬
nal (loppy drive into an IBM PC. Half size card and
software iels you copy loJfrom, view directory, in¬
itialize. or delete files on l ho Mac diskette, Works
wifh PCs, XTs, ATs, and compatibles, The easy way
to move information?
SI 49. 00 Visa/MC/CGD/Chk.
Micro Solutions Computer Products
-I:" ,y : -cc'- Dok.iL -60115 bie/7 56-341 1
Inquiry 621.
DISK DRIVES
PS/2 DRIVES FOR PCs AT's
Compali Kit/PC $279
CompaliKit/AT $219
Built-in floppy controllers— no problem.
Supports j-nuitrpre drives and formats. U is your
computer use IBM PS/2 1.4M diskettes plus more!
Call lor further information or to place an order.
VI$AfM&COD/CHECK.
Micro Solutions Computer Products
13? W Line an Hwy DcKalP, I L $0115 815/756-3411
inquiry 622.
DISK DUPE EQUIPMENT
DO YOUR OWN DUPLICATION
Copy 10,000 or only 10 in as little as 15
seconds each wifh famous Mountain Duplica¬
tion equipment at the very best prices!! See us
for ail of your duplication equipment needs
from Disks to Drives to Duplicators.
SYSTEMS SUPPORT DATA
223 Worth Royal Avenue. Front Royal, VA 22630
1*B00 231-4355
Inquiry 623.
DISK DUPLICATION
WE COPY YOUR DISKS FOR LESS
* Spooling in dupLcaflwg disks prodded toy the customer
•3'^*' or 5Va“
* StA* PRICES - 22 cents to 30 cents a ash!"
* 3yz“ PRICES - 35 cens to 50 carte a diekll'
* Bad disks nelurnftj
i Fast turnaround
* You choose itoe Quakiy tn me disk, won duplicate in tun"
* We can help wiin lEttoeis, si&sves. pnnung - |ust ask'
* No hidden costs
DISK-O-DATA
360 Massaehuseita Ave. Suite 303, Arlington, MA 02174
300-448-3408 _ El ?-$ 46-6703
Inquiry 624,
SOFTWARE PRODUCTION
• Disk duplication
* Warehousing
# All formats
• Drop shipping
# EVERLOCK copy
• Fulfillment
protection
* 48-hour delivery
■ Label/sleeve priming
* Consultation &
• Full packaging
guidance
services star*Byte^ |nc.
2880 Sergey Rd..
Hal field. PA 19440
215-997-2470
000-243-1515
Inquiry 625.
DUPUCAT10N IS THE SINCEflEST FORM Of FLATTERY
Let us Flatter you!!! See us for all disk
duplication needs. 10 disks to 100.000 and
more All formats— All systems. Best
prices “Our own in-house printing of
doc u m entation— lade Is-sl eeves,
SYSTEMS SUPPORT DATA
223 North Royal Avenue. Front Royal. VA 22630
1-600-231-4355
DISKETTES
CHEAP DISKS!!!
Allhough this headline may noi convey
quality . our 3Vi" floppy disks do!
100% Certified
720k only 980
1,44 MEG only $2.60
SYSTEMS SUPPORT DATA
223 Worth Royal Avenue Front Royal, VA 22630
_ 1-800-231-4355
Inquiry 627.
DUPLICATION SERVICES
SOFTWARE DUPLICATION
* One Stop Shopping * Technical Support
* Custom Packaging ■ Drop Shipping
* Copy Protection • Fast Turnaround
■ Competitive Pricing
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED
800-222-0490 NJ 201-462-7628
MEGASoft
P0 Bo* no, Fr«iK3Jfl, NJ 0773 fl See ftjr m cm page XV
Inquiry 628.
ELECTRONIC PROJECTS
BUILD TALKING ROBOT!
— Build B EAT Ihe Basic Educational Rabat Trainer
— Featured in BYTE April & May < 87
— Even g child can program ihis talking Robot, belli
Irom afMhe-sheH componanls
— Minimum Kit S500D U S
— Complete KII S 180 00 U.S,
— flO% SJH VISA welcomed
— For tortha-r Information write to:
GoCo Dist.
Suite 80ft 1146 Harwood Sl.r Vancouver, B,G. Canada V6E 3V1
VISA orders cmly; G04-6B1-O595
Inquiry 629.
ENTERTAINMENT
★ * * EGA Chess * * *
* "Challenging" . “Relentless''. . —PC Mag
* Fully Animated High Resolution Graphics
* Solve$ Male In 7. On Screen Clock
* Huge Opening Book . Select Laval
* Save/Restart/Prim Your Own Games
* Requires 256K EGA/VGA 5.25" disk
* $34.95 {55.00 for Demo)
CUBE Microsystems
P.O. BOX 26064. Overland Park. K$ 68226
(g 13} 049-6747 V I S A/M C
Inquiry 630.
NEMESIS’ Go Master®
Go. a game of strategic elegance, has ho en a way of
life m Ihe Orient to* over tour thousand years. Many con-
sidar Go to be the secret of Hie Japanese business¬
man's success. "White chess is a game of war. Go is
a game ot marlref sbaJie'IPresident of Nikka Hotels!
"If you are interested In Go. buy this program,1'
Game Of I he Monlh J, Poummio BYTE 7/6?
Toyogo, InC- The Leader in Computer Co .
76 Bedford St. tf34-Y, Lexington, MA 02173, {517) 861-0408
Inquiry 631.
Sho ’nuff good software
Cast yo eyas ’pun a lithe ole piece o assembly code,
n yo be see in hows powerful easy it be ta lie yo mind
in knots. Sos wise ofe Unde Remus hisseH has com¬
mented a pile o IBM code jus lo yo ta see. Ta git yourin,
be a scribbirn GAMES on a scrap □ paper. Den be a
mail in da simples' purchase order in da whole wide
world 'n a check lo three smackers la
ZIPFAST Bo* 12238 LOKinglon. KY 40801-2230
Ah entry buck shrinking da disk la 35 inches.
A fancilled printed book be IS o dem der dollars.
Don' furgul yo ever levin return address.
Inquiry 632.
EPROM PRGMR UTILITIES
GTEK/B&C/SCC PROGRAMMER UTIL
Gal this XT/AT menu-driven utility that offers advanced
features far beyond whal came with your programmer.
Fast, powerful, complete, and easy to use. Editor ind.
CHKSUM, Search/Replace, etc. File Conversions ind,
InletfMoUlTek. Handles 16732 bit mergesfeplilsAranslers
with ease. Essential tor pgmrs.. angrs, techs., elo Demo
S5- Order now at i nice price ol S79 and save $701
Ping Software, Inc.
PO, Bo* 27468, Golden WJtay. MN 68427
CALL (612} 546 3444
Inquiry 633.
FLOW CHARTS
FLOW CHARTING 11+ HELPS YOU!
Precise flowcharting Is fast and simple with Flow Charting
Ji + . Draw, edfi and prim perfect chans: bokj and norma) toms.
26 shapes — 95 sizes; last entry of arrows, bypasses 8 con¬
nectors; Fast Insect Line; Shrink screen displays 200-column
chart; 40 column edil screen lor detail work, much morel
PATTON & PATTON
SI Greai Oaks Blvd San Jose, CA 95119
1 -80 0-52 5-00 B 2 Ext. 42 {Outside CA)
408-629-5376 Ext. 42 (CA/Intl)
Enquiry 634,
RFFLOW only $79
RFFLow is a drawing tod designed specifically for
flowcharts. Easy to learn, easy 10 use. 75 Shapes
automatically adjust in size. Move. copy. Or delete
groups ol objects. 7 levels of zoom Use mouse or
keyboard, On-line user's manual. Supports Win¬
dows printers, plotters, and fonts. $5 trial disc,
RFFlow requires Microsoft' Windows.
RFF ELECTRONICS
1053 Banyan Court, Loveland, CO 00536
(303) 663-5767
Inquiry 635.
STRUCTURED FLOW CHART
NSChan creates Massi-Shneiderman (structured)
flowcharts from a simple PDL. Keywords define
structures & text strings appear in the chart. Easy
la create, even easier to revise! Automatic chart siz¬
ing, text centering. Translators from many
languages available, for Mac and IBM PC.
SILTRONIX, INC.
PA Box 52544, sen Diego. CA 92133
1-800-637-4888
Inquiry 636.
HARDWARE
CHIP CHECKER
* 74/54 TTL + CMOS * B0OO Nat + Signers
* 14/4000 CMOS • 9000 TTL
* 14-24 Pin Chips * 3H + ,6" 1C widths
TesEs/tdenrifips over 650 digital chips wilh ANY type
or output in seconds. Also tests popular RAM chips. IBM
oompaiibfe version $259. C128 + C64 version St59.
DUNE SYSTEMS
2683 Wills Or,, Si Joseph. Ml 49005
{616} 983-2352
Inquiry 637.
Rack-Mounted AT 286 or 386
Industrial, MedTecti, Laboratory and Comm, needs
0 Intel 00266 or 60366 CPU daughter card ■> Rass-ve sack
ptone{0 tO expansion slots) 0 Fils standard 19" rack ? Heavy
duly ou a* rarrr, O Clean, air filter > Higdi speed, h^vquaiMy iwS
disk aYailaWe <■ 9ide‘mwntgd CPU chasss 'or easy
maintenance access Ptfw<?r supply up to 360 Wans Fgf
tjeiails and prices. Contact:
(516) 589-8666
International
Telecommunications Services
Inquiry 638.
FEBRUARY 1989 * B Y T E 311
Inquiry 626.
The Buyer’s Mart
HARDWARE
LATEST AWARD BIOS
PC7XT ' 286 ’ 386
Support For;
■ Enhanced Keyboards
* EGA & VGA Graphics
* 3.5" Floppies & More. .
Authorized AWARD Distributor
Call 1-&0CM23 3400
KOMPUTERWERK, INC.
851 Parkview Blvd.f Pittsburgh, PA 15215
Inquiry 639.
LAPTOP COMPUTERS
LAPTOP SPECIALS
Toshiba * Zenith • NEC * SHARP LAPTOPS • Hard
drives for Tandy 1400 LT & Toshiba 1100+ *
AFFORDABLE 5V*w or DRIVE UNITS for LAP¬
TOPS & DESKTOPS * DICONIX PRINTERS - 768
card for T1000 - 2400 BAUD MODEMS lor Laptops
* Fast reliable and friendly service. For Low Pric¬
ing call
COMPUTER OPTIONS UNLIMITED
201-469-767B (7 Days, 9 am-10 pm Eastern time)
Inquiry 645.
Apple • Service Parts
• Accessories • Systems •
BUY * SELL * TRADE
PRE-OWNED Electronics, Inc,
30 Clematis Avenue, Waltham, MA 02154
800-274-5343 FAX 617-891-3556
Service Centers and Dealers welcome
Inquiry 640.
HARDWARE/ADD-ONS
The Worlds First Highest Density Module!
■ 18 Meg on the smiles! surface
* Organisation: 2*lC24Kx9 bit
■ Package; DU. 64 pin Jedec-Si&ncJard
■ Tochnorogy: CMOS, hybrid. 18 xHM$1iq04P-ia
’ Compatibility: With two Hitachi H056A 13-10
1 Suitable Tor extension of basic memory
For mow information please write;
TermoTrol Corp.
1BBB Century Park East, L A. CA 9QDS7
Tel- 213 264-3242
Inquiry 641.
HARDWARE/COPROCESSOR
DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSOR
DSP products for Ihe IBM PC/X17AT based on the Tl
TMS32010 andTMS320C25 Designed for applications
in communications, instrumentation, speech, and
numeric processing. Qlferad with 12 bit 110 KHz A7D
and D/A and continuous to disk data acquisition &
playback option. $650 and up.
DALANCO SPRY
B9 WesMand Aye.. Rochester, NY 14618
(716) 473-3610
Inquiry 642.
SC/FOX "PARALLEL COPROCESSOR
PCjfXT/AT/38S plug-in board with Forth software.
10 MIPS operation, up to 50 MIPS burst. 64 K to
1M byte memory. Uses Harris RTX 2000"" RfSC
realtime CPU with 1 -cycle multiply, 1 -cycle
14- priority interrupts, I wo 256 -word slacks, three
16-bit timer/counters, 16- bit i/o bus, ideal for real¬
time control, signal and image processing and
multiple board operation. From $1,995.
SILICON COMPOSERS, INC. (415) 322-8763
210 Cali forma Ave.. Suite K, Palo AFto, CA 94306
Inquiry 643.
2 PC — FILE TRANSFER UTILITY
2 PC: Counsels any im PC’s tof tile LransJor and communication.
Features ■ 115 2M baud transfer rale ' directory trees ' chat mods
' liia legglngArieiringftMBtlon 1 print facility + universal cahie ■
lioa cable wiring diagram (so you can "roll your Wif cablaf) ■
3l*H a $Vj" disks. Complete ■ $55 (List, $00). w/o cable - $45.
2PC Lite: Lass Expensive, Works Great! Complete - $40 (U6t:
$S0). w/d cable ■ $30. RJ-tl cables optional. Both programs haw
43-lFho mode.
Cabins sold separately: seripar, kbd, nron, 5 Others
Thompson Computing, 507F N. Ventu Park Road,
Suite M, Newbury Park. CA 9132G. (81)51 4967053
VISA/MC add 4%. 5150 SIR _
Inquiry 646.
LAP - LINK
Tho ultimata solution for linking laptop computer with any IBM
compatible desktop PC. 115. 2G0 baud transfer rato—laster
than any other produoi available. No installation necessary,
easy io use split screen design. Includes Incfodlbto "unitor-
set cable" chat connects any two computers. Transfer entire
disks laslor than a DOS copy command! Only $129.95 in¬
cluding universal1 OabtO and both 31/1’ and 514" disks.
■’Bridge1' owners can trade in for only $09.95 wto cable.
Traveling Software,, Inc.
18702 North Creek Parkway, Bothell WA 98011
1-600-343-8080 (206) 463-8088
Inquiry 647.
MEMORY CHIPS
MEMORY CHIPS
4l25fr15-l2-10
Cull
510W (T Meg)
Cell
4164.15
Call
51258 for Compaq 385 Call
41B4-S2.
Call
80873-2
Cell
4H28 Piggy Back tor AT
Cnll
80287-6-0-19
Call
4146448 (64K*4).
Call
00387
Call
41*256 (256K*4)
Cull
NEC-Vab-fl
Celt
2784,27128, 272&G, 27512 .
. Call
Mouse .
Cal)
Prices s-ubjocl Jt> Ctamjcr
ESSKAY
718-353-3353
Inquiry 648.
MONITOR INTERFACE
DRIVE MULTIPLE MONITORS
wilh one PC u&ing our VOPEX video port ex¬
panders, Featuring no loss ol resolution or color,
presentations are more dramatic. We have a
VOPEX for PC, PS/2, MAC II & workstations Units
are available from 2 to 10 output ports.
NETWORK TECHNOLOGIES INC.
0 DO- RGB-TECH or Z1G-543-1646 MCfVlSAfAWEX
19145 Elizabeth St., Aurora, OH 44202
Inquiry 649,
INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
POETRY PROCESSOR
STOCK-MASTER 4.0
Commercial grade inventory management
software st micro prices.
* Supports ml 12 * Slock Status Reporting
transaction types * Activity History Analysis
* Trend Analysis. * Bill of Materials
* Quality Control * Purchase Order Writing
* Multiple Locations ■ Order Entry
■ Purchase Order Tracking * Materia) Requirements
* Open Order Reporting * On Line Inquiry
» ScriaVLdl ff Tracking
Applied Micro Business Systems, Inc.
177-F Riverside Ave . NowpoM Beach. CA 92G63 7H-759-05B2
wnwruwr P0 ET R Y PR 0C ESS IN Guv te ?m pp 121-228?
Michael Newman's POETRY PROCESSOR, is now available for
IBM PC's 8 compels. Includes lent editor, form editor & lomptales,
25,0M'Wora rhyming dictionary, eutonuled metrical scansion,
rhyme check, user "instant Aftiholcgy" network $39-95
"Should delight anyone who loves, words justifies a recommen¬
dation " Peter H. lewis. NX Time s "downright user-
sumptuous " Washington Post
Cell 201-525-2122 for details on ordering POETRY PACKAGE - Blso Incl.
N.E.R.0, ftilael/inlemal rhvmedict. $59.95-$ ORPHEUS A-&-C, a poslry
lutonal $49.95 St Special XMAS d- sc punt. Or sad c k ar mi'a la:
Michael Newman
c/o The Paris Review, 541 E. 72nd St., NYC. NY 10Q2t
Inquiry 644. Inquiry 650,
PROGRAM SUBCONTRACT
In a Time Jam?
Let us do your software work in T Pa seal or
TC or M/S C. Guaranteed fast turn, low
price and satisfaction. To your specs or we'll
design too!
Automated Software
3239 Mill Run, Raleigh, NC 27612
800-227-7681 or 919-782-9045
Inquiry 651.
PROGRAMMERS TOOLS
TURBO SCREEN MASTER
Produce data entry screens and help windows tor Turbo
Pascal and Turbo C- Menu-driven, context sensitive
help, conltgurable edit commands, flexible data validity
checking, colors, IBM-PC graphics characters.
Generates Pascal and C source coda. Only $69.95 plus
53.00 S&H. WA residents add 7.9%.
BLUE BRIDGE SOFTWARE
7401 W, Canal Drive, Suite 343
Kennewick. WA 99336
(509) 627-6729
Inquiry 652.
TUB™ 4.1 Version Control
"TLIB’* is a great system41 — PC Tech Journal 3/88,
Fofl-leatured configuration mgmt for software proles-
sionals. All versions of your code instantly available.
Very compact, only changes are stored. Cheekrin/out
looks, revision merge, branching, more, Mainframe
deltas tor Pansophlc, ADR, IBM, Unisys, MS-DOS.
599,95, or 5-slation LAN $299.95 + shipping
BURTON SYSTEMS SOFTWARE
PO Boy 4156 Cary, NC 27519 (919) 856-0475
Inquiry 653,
FORTRAN NAMELIST EMULATOR
NAMLST™ subroutine library provides Fortran programmers
with on emulation or NAMELIST and associated read and
write routines. Supports Fortran 77 data types. 31 character
names, control of output tine length, lab stops, paging, plus
features not found in compilers with NAMELIST statements.
Popular Fortran 77 compilers. Literature available. Price
S1SDL
Data Ready
4647 T Highway 280 E - Suile 150, Birmingham, AL 35242
(205) 991-6381
Inquiry 654,
DEVELOPMENT
TOOLS
Professional Programmers Extender: Standard
Mac Interlace, lists, printing, graphics, tiling. Ex¬
tender GraphPac: Quality color graphs, line, bar,
semi-log, customizable symbols.
INVENTION Software
(313) 996-8108
Inquiry 655.
TURBO PLUS $149.95
Programming tools for Turbo Pascal 5.0 Screen Painter.
Code Generator, t/O Ft (rids. Dynamic Menus.
Programming Unit Libraries, Sample Programs,
290 Page Illustrated Manual 60 Day Salrsfoctibn
Guaranies! Brochures & Demo Diskettes avail.
Nighty Favorable Reviews! IBM A Compatibles .
Nostradamus Inc .
3TS1 Souto VWty Sr. (SUM 252) Salt Lake City, LT flJJOS
_ _ (flfiTl 4&7-QS62 _
Inquiry 656
312 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1 989
Order BYTE and BIX on dfa
Today!
» -
BYTE Program
Listings on Disk
BYTE listings on disk are the
right choice ir you want to com-
P , r?ad ,,ie complete source
code listings of programs. BYTE
listings are available from
December 1985 to present at the
prices staled below.
Best ot BIX on
Disk
BeS . ch month’s
Receive hlfihljgMsJL^£>s world'
activities on * f „dng system.
class on-hne c® h the text
You can V^‘„oCMSor. Each
with any word P interesting
disk contains discussions
ami informative re own.
specific to the m» hthc disk,
Tor examine. 0 from IBM*
^sr2^2C«**r
specific conic al
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PROGRAMMERS TOOLS
Get INSIDE*
INSIDE! rs a powerful software performance analysis
tool for popular PC compilers. INSIDE! measures Ihe
execution time of every function or procedure with
microsecond accuracy or computes how clfen each
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Paradigm Systems Inc.
P.Q. Box 152, Milford. MA 01757
(800) 537-5043 In MA; (508) 478-0499
Inquiry 657
Modula-2
EmsSiorage is an advanced memory manager for M2.
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M IVI I <S(33) 777-&UM; FAX: (503) 777-0934
Inquiry 658,
FREE BUYER'S GUIDE
Programmer's Connection is an independent dealer repre¬
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Prog ramm e r*s Conn action US 80 0-336- 1 1 66
7249 Whipple Avo NW Canada 600-225-1 16©
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Inquiry 659.
*Cr DOCUMENTATION TOOLS
* C-CALL $39Gmsta& grtphfrlrtM ol calterfOaltod SlfuClurw, and
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SOFTWARE BLACKSMITHS INC. !
6064 St. Ives Way, Mississauga, ONT Canada LSN-4M1
(416) 856-4456
Inquiry 660.
PUBLIC DOMAIN
OUTSTANDING IBM SOFTWARE
ONLY S3.00/D1SK or Lass
The Best o< Shareware and Public Domain Programs.
5.25* and 3.50* formals.
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Satisfaction guaranteed.
Write or cafl for FREE CATALOG
or Sand 75£ for a disk Catalog and sample programs 1
A.C.L. (916) 973-1 850
1 62 t Fulton A., Suite 1*35.02, Saeran,on to, CA 35625
Inquiry 661,
$3.00 SOFTWARE FOR IBM PC
Hundreds to choose from, wordproeesaore.
databases, spreadsheets, games, lotto, com¬
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documentation on the disk.
WRITE FOR YOUR FREE CATALOG TODAYf
BEST BITS & BYTES
P.O. Box 8245, DepL-B. Van NuyS. CA 91409
In CA; (SIC) 764-9503 800’245-BYTE
Inquiry 662.
PUBLIC DOMAIN
PUBLIC DOMAIN
75$ per DISK SALE
20 TOP IBM PC PO/SW DISKS (360K)
ONLY SI $ + S3 S&H
QubeCalc, EDFtAV, AutoMenu, Malh Tutor, PC-DOS H&lp,
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PC-Stuck. KidCameg, Best Gaines. Homo Inventory, PC-
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Goal Utilities.
BRIGHT FUTURES INCORPORATED
Dept. BYM. RO. Box 1030. East Windsor. CT 0BOB8
FREE CATALOC (Si per tfsk/SGc rental
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We send yog 15-20 new IBM programs a month on 5
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bonus — FREE! No gimmicks— od catches!
toll free 800 669-2669 ext 348
SOFTWARE ol the MONTH CLUB
we taka vlsa/ntastercsrdiamex
Inquiry 663.
Inquiry 669,
FREE SOFTWARE
BEST OF PUBLIC DOMAIN
& SHAREWARE .
Carefully selected and
edited programs for
Send SAS.E. for free catalog.
C.C.S., Inc, Dept B1
RO, Box 312, Lafayette Hill. PA 19444
PD & SHAREWARE
SOFTWARE tor IBM PC A CP/M
The Source Library for UK & European Users.
Smce 1932 PDSL has Dean coasttiered iha major source library
tor professional users. As well as a' I the big name items we hold
all those hard to rind utilities and source code hies not hekJ by cntvej
litHTarias. It you would like access to our 2000 plus disks sand two
iR.Cs (UK two tgp piarT^K} for lull catalogue. Aeihor distribution en¬
quiries also •welcome:
The Public Domain & Shareware Library
Wmsccmba House. Beacon Fid-. GrowOOteugh
Sussex TNG 1UL. England Tel 0892 663298
Inquiry 664,
SECURITY
FREE CATALOG
PUBLIC DOMAIN/SHAREWARE
- 460 IBM PC i compatibles disks *
£00 Amiga disks * 125 Atari ST disks
PC disks as tow as 61.25 oaclh. Amiga £ ST as Jow as $1.60
each! Rant or buy, Ff&a shipping! Call loll Tree, writs Or cir¬
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110115, Please specify computer— 48 fir. turnaround 1
Computer Solutions
RO. Box 354— Dept, El. Mason, Michigan 49854
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THE ULTIMATE CORY PROTECTION
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BBI COMPUTER SYSTEMS'
14105 HorLiga La.. Silver Spring. MD 20900 (3D1) 071-1094
Inquiry 665.
Inquiry 670.
RENT SOFTWARE SI/DISK
Rent Public Domain and User Supported Software
for SI per disk hill or well copy. IBM (3Va,r also),
Apple, C44, Sanyo 550 and Mac. Sampler S3.
VjSA/MC, 24 hr info/order line. <6t9) 941-3244 or
send #10 SASE (specify computer) Money Back
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FutureSystems
Box 3040 (T), Vista, CA 92083
office: 10-6 PST MonrSat, (619) 941-9761
PR1VACY-YES/VIRUS-NO
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OKtiK tXX>M tkA K SflKsd tFd wwspni bf naJenuBB jm r>
100V (mpdifl srneis mwiriln«o axnrnanLfe. lodLmg hefcAi user
dialogue A dOK wnces r&x acn rm^ t mxjed tr nhd DnerCfioe Fsr
ttt WtiPC tod anJ t\il «mp3Di(», oopnjeasser (6D67. SOS' or OtEEh fk>«4
momcxy 35K Speofy 5^5" W 15"^ mad-i TCSV kEbiK b rrmuiV j/d
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uxOnron and M.ur>ig6a \w DCS. no FtSAh US sales trty Chat* aMOb
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CSI
RO BOW 98, Mellon. MA 02168
Inquiry 666,
Inquiry 671.
FREE IBM SOFTWARE
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SECTOfl SYSTEMS COMPANY i INC.
Depl. B-2. 416 Ocean Avenue, Marblehead, MA 01945
(617) 639-2625
YOU CAN HAVE TOTAL PRIVACY?
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DIARY 1-800-673-4279
FO Box 7CH43. B^eA>e VJA 95007
Sand far Additional Details Today]
Inquiry 667,
Inquiry 672.
FREE SOFTWARE
Buy or Rent Si/disk
Wood's largest Free Software Library of IBM PC & Com¬
patibles and Macintosh. Duet 3000 programs for
Religion, Utilities, Business, Com.. Word. Processor,
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SOFTSHOPPE
RO Box 709, Ann Arbor, Ml 46105
(313) 763-8721
BIT-LOCK® SECURITY
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MICROCOMPUTER APPLICATIONS
3167 E. Otero Circfe, Littleton, OO 90122
(303) 92 2-641 0/770-1 963
Inquiry 668.
inquiry 673.
FEBRUARY 1989 - BYTE 313
The Buyer’s Mart
SECURITY
COPY PROTECTION
The world's loading software manulaciurors depend
on Soflguard copy protection systems. Your FREE
DISKETTE introduces you to SuperLock'— invisible copy
protection lor IBM-FC (and compatibles) an£j Macintosh.
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* New upgrades available
(408) 773-9680
SOFTGUARD SYSTEMS, INC.
710 LahA*tyr SuHo 200, Svnnyvalu, CA g4oe&
_ FAX [4da> 773-1 W _
Inquiry 674.
SOFTWARE/ACCOUNTING
dBASE BUSINESS TOOLS
' General Ledger ’ Purch Qrd/lnvnlory
* Accounts Ftecvbl. * Accounts Payable
* Order Entry * Job Costing
* Sales Analysis * Job Estimating
$99 EA. + S&h wJdBASE 2. 3 Gr 3h- SOURCE CODE
dATAMAR SYSTEMS* Cr. Crd/ChkJCOD
4976-6 Santa Monica Ave.
San Diego, CA 92107 (619) 223-3344
Inquiry 675.
SOFTWARE/BASIC
QB 4.5 LIBRARIES
Make QuickBASIC 4.5 even better with our
FINALLY! Family of Products, Programming tools.
WINDOWING, Graphics and more!
FREE CATALOG of Compiled BASIC Tools,
(800) 423-3400.
KOMPUTEFtWERK, INC.
651 Parkview Bivd,. Pittsburgh, PA 15215
Inquiry 676.
QuickWindows
As seen in the Microsoft Value- Pack Catalog!
Create windows, pop-up and pull-down menus, data-enlry
screens, and mujiiplfrinpirt dialog bo*os quickly and easi¬
ly, Full Support cl Microsoft mouse. Join Ihe many Fortune
500 companies using Quick Windows and order your copy
today, OuickWindows $79. Advanced $139. For Microsoft
QuickBASIC or BASCOM. See pg.70, BYTE, March. '89,
Software Interphase. Inc.
5 Bradley Si., Suite 106 <■ Providence, R! 02906
(401) 274-5465 _ Call rtow lor Frag Damp Dtgk
inquiry 677,
SOFTWARE/BUSINESS
DATA ENTRY SYSTEM
Meads-down data entry with two-pass verification
for the IBM PS/2-PC/XT/AT & compatibles.
Features include: Auto dup/sklp, verify bypass,
rarge checks, table lookups, a complete edit
language. Fully menu driven. Price $395
Call for our free 3D day trial period,
COMPUTER KEYES
21929 Makah Rd,, Wocdway, WA 98020
Tel: 206/776-6443 USA: 806/356-0203 Fax: 200^76-7210
LP88-SPREADSHEET LP
Qgr besFsaiiing menu-driven linear programming system now
solves prcbtoms with 1000 constraints end 5000 variables up
to 30 limes iastor. Now version readsfiwites Loins worksheets.
Use l-2'3®ym phony as a matrix generator or post processor.
M^’iy ohipr lealures inPixJng interactive and batch operation,
spreadsheet-style display, equation processor, problemfbasis
storage, lite ftQ, Simplex restart, report generator. sensitivity
analysis. SENows says: "The flexibility and features gl this pro¬
gram am a bargain at hs low pneo." $149 with B0$7 support
and 100-page manual. $29 tor working demo and manual.
EASTERN SOFTWARE PRODUCTS, INC.
P O 00* 15328. Aloxandrift. VA 22309 (703) 360-7690
Inquiry 678.
314 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
SOFTWARE/BUSINESS
dFELLER Inventory
Business inventory programs written in modifiable dBASE
source code.
dFELLER Inventory Si 50. 00
Requires dBASC II or III. PC-DOS/CPM
dFELLER Pius 6200.00
with History and Purchase Orders
Requires dBASE III or dBASE lit Plus (For Stockrooms)
Felier Associates
550 CR PPA, Route 3, Ishpommg. M! 49849
(900) 406-6024
Inquiry 679,
Contact POWER
E-Z contact management system lor hands-on
lawyers, consultants. RE agents, mlr. reps & other
client based professionals. Instant data, form let¬
ters, labels, schedules, lime logs, ticklers— auto
phone work— tracks mail, referrals, projects— text
editor for notes & letters Only $395. IBM, 384K,
HD, Send $5.00 for working demo,
Parkside Computer Systems (714) 838-1888
1241 Land fair. Santa Ana, CA 92705 Visa/MC
Inquiry 680.
Simplify the Business of Business
with
SBMPLESQFTs Business Software
* Genera! Ledger " Accts Payable
■ Accts Receivable * Cashflow
$49.95 each + S&H
*"* Write for FREE CATALOG "*
SIMPLE SO FT SOFTWARE CORPORATION
1402 E. Guadalupe Road, Suite 228, Tempe, AZ 85283
(602) 831-8105
Inquiry 681.
SOFTWARE/ENGINEERING
PRACTICAL ENGINEERING TOOLS
Hobbyists— Students— Engineers
CIRCUIT DESIGN _CampDe5, menu selections Irom
basic electricity through circuit designs.
M ATHE M ATICS„CompMal h , menu selections Irom
general math through statistics.
ANALYSlS_CamfMaw. Fourier Analysis of waveforms
and inters, PC/MSDOS. $49 each, VISA/MC
BSOFT SOFTWARE (614) 491 -0632
444 Cotton Rd.. Columbus, OH 43207
Inquiry 682.
Affordable Engineering Software
FREE APPLICATION GUIDE & CATALOG 1
Circurl Analysis • Root Locus * Thermal Analysis * Plot¬
ter Drivers * Engineering Graphics • Signal Processing
• Active/Passive Riiei Design * Transfer FunctiorVFFT
Analysis • Logic Simulation * MicroSkip Design *
PC/MSDOS • Macintosh - VISA/MC
BV Engineering Professional Software
2023 Chicago Ave., Suits B-1 3, Riverside, CA 92507
(714) 701-0252
Inquiry 683.
MATH MATE
Versatile Math software with direct connection lo
Lotus 1-2-3 for advanced curve fitting and
automatic LOG-LOG plots. Powerhouse solutions
for more day to day math problems. Includes 3
solvers, 3 calculators and math graphics. $1 49. 30
day money back guarantee.
MCAE Technologies, Inc.
3474 Nova Scotia Ave.. San Jose. CA 95124
(408) 371-6095
Inquiry 684,
SOFTWARE/ENGINEERING
SIMULATION WITH GPSS/PC™
GPSS/FC"1 is an IBM personal computer implementa¬
tion of the popular mainframe simulation language
GPSS. Graphics, animation and an extremely interac¬
tive environment allow a totally new view of your simula¬
tions, Simulate complex real-world systems with the
most, interactive and visual yet economical simulation
software.
MINUTEM AN Software
PCX Bo* 171/Y Slow. Massachusetts, USA.
(SOB) 897-SB62 ext. 540 (BOO) 223-1430 ext. S40
Inquiry 685.
ENGINEERING SOFTWARE
Public Domain software and shareware tor the IBM pc. Only
$5 per disk distribution tea.
* Circuit analysis Disk 1000 * Curve filling Disk 5102
HP Finer design Disk i§00 * Statistics Disk 6300
* Resident Help Disk 5701 • On Side print Disk 4020
* Graph plotting Disk 62Q2 * and many more
For a FREE CATALOG:
New England Software Library
P.O. Box 606. Shelburne, VT 05402 985-2923
Inquiry 686.
Circuit Analysis — SPICE
Non-lin&ar DC & Transient- Linear AC.
* Version 3B1 wilh BStM, GaAs, JFET,
MOSFET, 0JT. diode, etc. models, screen
graphics, Em proved speed and convergence.
*PC Version 2G6 available at £95.
Call, write, or check inquiry # for more info.
Northern Valley Software
20327 RcUhrock Dr., Rancho Paros ^das, CA 90274
(213) 541*3677
Inquiry 687,
FREE ENGINEERING MAGAZINE
Personal Engineering is a monthly magazine sent
free of charge (USA only) to sc ieniists/engf nears
who use PCs for technical applications. Topics
each month include Instrumentation * Data
Acq/Control * Design Automation. To receive a
free sample issue and qualilication form either cir¬
cle below or send request on letterhead to:
Personal Engineering Communications
Box 1821. Brooklinft MA 02140
Inquiry 688.
EC*Ace ANALOG CIRCUIT ANALYSIS
You can alford lo get started with EC-Ace, a subset of
the powerful EGA-2 circuit simulator Includes ell the
bastes and built-in graphics.
* AC, DC, Temperature, Transient
* A full 525 pg, ECA-2 manual.
* Interactive, twice as fast as SPICE,
EC-Ace 2*31 IBM PC or Mac Si 45.
Call 313-663-8810 for FREE DEMO
Tatum Labs, Inc.
147B Mark Twain CL, Ann Arbor, Ml 48103
Inquiry 689.
TUT SIM™ FANSIM™
* Time Domain » Frequency Domain
* Control sys. Simulation * FFT, Imerae FFT
* Linear and nonlinear * Fmd Xfer Functions
■ Block Diagram Syntax * Find roots, pores
■ Transient response * Bode, Nyquiss. tames
- $40 (aval »pyy54&5 * $40 (aval copyy$395 toll
Info, examples: TUTSIM Products
200 California Awi, #212, Pato Alto, CA 94306
(415) 32^4600
Inquiry 690.
SOFTWARE/GEOLOGICAL
GEOLOGICAL CATALOG
Geological software for log plotting, gridding/con-
fourrng, hydrology, digitizing, 3-D solid modelling,
synthetic seismogram, fracture analysis, image pro¬
cessing. scout ticket manager, over 50 programs
in catalog. Macintosh too! Please caJi, or write, for
Free Catalog!
RockWare, Inc.
4251 Kipling St.r Siuts 595, Wheal RWge, CO &>033 USA
(303) 423-5645
SOFTWARE/GRAPHICS
TurboGeometry Library
1 Over 150 253 dlmensrpnal routines, Includes Inte isetfion s,
ItanrfonnBUons. Equations, Hicwenunes, Perspective,
Curwe, Areas, \tolumes, Clipping, Pianos, Vectors, Distance,
Folydecompt IBM PC and CcmpL MAC- MSDOS 2+. Turbo
Pascal. Turbo C, M5C 5 Turbo Pascal MAC. 400 pg, manuat,
source coda. $149.95 + 5.00 S&H. Foreign add $l|{KX VISA,
MG. Chk, PO. 30 Day guarantee,
Disk Soft wars, Inc.
2116 E. Ara patio Rd, #467, Richardson, TX 75081
1-800-635-7780
(214) 423-7288 FAX: 214-423-4465
inquiry 691.
BEGS v 2 . O
Scientific Engineering Graphics System
m Logarithmic, Time/Date & Linear Axes,
• Easy Curvo Filling and Data Smoothing.
• 1-2-3 Interface & Numeric Spreadsheet.
• Supports all Video & Device Standards.
• 10 Curves with up to 0OOO points each.
Edmond Software, \np.
5900 Moslelrof Dr, #11 24 405-842-0559
Oklahom a City, OK 73 1 1 2 500-992-34 2 5
Inquiry 692.
PEN PLOTTER EMULATOR
FPLQT turns your dot matrix or laser printer into
an HP pen ptotler Fast hi res output. No jagged
lines. Vary line width, color. Works with Aulocad,
Drafix, etc. Supports NEC P5/P6, IBM Proprintar,
Epson LQ/FX, Toshiba, HP Laserjel Her-
cules/CGA/EGA/ VGA for preview. 364 check/m .o.
FPLOT CORPORATION
24-16 sieinway St., Suita 60S, Astoria, NY 11103
212-416-8469
Inquiry 693,
GRAPHICS PRINTER SUPPORT
AY LAS77 Use the PrtSc key to make quality scaled
B&W or color reproducffons ot your display on arty
dot matrix, inkjet, or laser printer. GRAF PLUS sup¬
port s ell versions of PC or MS-DOS with IBM (ind.
EGA, VGA), lecmar. and Hercules graphics boards
S49J35.
Jewell Technologies, Inc.
4740 44th Ave. SW, Seattle, WA 98116
800*628*2628 x 527 (206) 937-1081
Inquiry 694,
FORTRAN PROGRAMMER?
Now you can call 2-0 and 3-D graphics routine* within your
FORTRAN program.
GFAFMATIC; screen routines 5135.
FLOTWIATIC; plotter driver 135
PRINTMATIC: printer driver 135
For ihe IBM PC. XT, At & compatibles, we support s
i variety of compflers, graphics bds., plotters and printers.
1 MICROCOMPATIBLES
301 Prelude Dr., Dopl. B, Silver Spring, MO 20901 USA
(301) 593-0683
Inquiry 695,
The Buyer’s Mart
SOFTWARE/INVESTMENT
Compare over 1.3M Muluel Funds with Business Waak'g Mvlufll
Fund ScomCoajd end yur IBM PC or conypaSihte. LJM jdnplti fn*mj
commands to search and sort cxi wr £5 jnlbrmalujn iifllds. Mo ad¬
ditional Software required. Data Iransports easily 1q Ulus 1-2-1
Search, total. avHraga, ranlc. display and prim report*— el (he lOUCh
of a keyl
Only 569.95 Mrii <or an Equliy or Fuad tocom*
1VHMJS m&scriptiofl Vi< t-Jnf Ihe Equity or Fued Income *rttcn
*319.90 tor a lutatmAMn la b«lt veniane (a uritqe ol Wi
Order ihw ekt receive mare inigrrnBtlpn by celling 1-600-553-3575
Od riliODtft, Mil 1 ‘312-750-9202)
oriole Business Week Diskettes
RO. Box 621. Hk Grow, IL 60M9
Inquiry 696.
STOCKS OPTIONS FUTURES
Twin Your PC Inlo A
MARKET QUOTATION MONITOR
iQQ page book covers satellilo and radio data reception of
financial news and quotes lor your PC, $19 (includes demo
diskette). Free intojmarive colotog o!
• Data receivers and kite
• Quote processing and display software
• De scrambling software utilities
303^223-2120 85 Demo Diskette
DATArx
11! E. Drake Rd, Suite 7D41, Fort Collins, CO 50525
Inquiry 697.
Historical Stock Market Data
MOLLY (HE: “Wfiat's New'1 0YTE 1CW8S p. 04), with over
ISQjOOO daily prices (4 Mbytes) on major indexes many
from tho 1920s, Including all 3 DOW Indies, SAP 500.
Ini. Rates and more (or 8199J9S. ECONOMIC Database
with 160 date senes, most begin In [he 1S40s, lor £159iOS,
All files are in WK1 format for use with spreadsheets. IBM
8 Mac, Demo disk S5JXX Guaranteed!
MarketBase Inc.
250 W. 90 St„ Mow York, NY 10024
1-BOO-MARKET5
Inquiry 698.
SOFTWARE/LANGUAGES
FORTHWITH DRUMA FORTH-83
Powerful. Well detuned. User friendly, AttmcUvoly
priced. Enhance productivity. Reduce davnlopmenl time.
* No 64K limit. 16 bit $p@ad to 32QK. lMb+ memory.
■ On-line doflfckresary. tu3| DOS b file interlace.
* Assombtor, editor, examples, many utilities.
15 day unconditional guarantee. From S79. $4H $2, vj&ivmg.
IBM PCfXTWT b ail compatibles. Other packages; Inquire
DRUMA INC.
6445 Hwy. 290 East ElC^ Austin, D( 70723
Orders: 512-323-0403 BBoard: 512-323-2402
Inquiry 699.
FORTRAN tor Macintosh
Language Systems FORTRAN is a Wl-f&mttred FOR¬
TRAN 77 compiler integrated w'MPW. Full ANSI FOR¬
TRAN 77 plus VAX-type extensions. SANE numerical
calculations & dala types incl. COMPLEXES, 68000,
68020 and 68881 object code. Arrays greater than 32K.
Link with Pascal, C, MacApp. S359 wfMFW via air.
MC/VISA/Check, MAC+, SE. Mac II. KD req.
Language Systems Gorp.
441 Carlisle Drive, Hemdcrt. VA 22070
{703) 470-0181
Inquiry 700.
EASY TO C
The C Workshop interactive software teaches you
C, Do reat C program exercises wilh buili-in editor
and compiler. Feedback guides you lo solution.
Al! you need to leam G, including our 3S4-page book,
S69J95 + $5 Ship. PC compatibles,
MOVlSA/AE/check,
Wordcraft
3027 Panniman Aw., Oakland, CA 94519
(800) 782-8003 (PST) (415) 534-2212 In CA
Inquiry 701,
SOFTWARE/MATHEMATICS
NOW!! C MEANS BUSINESS
Exact BCD lype math in C. Greenfeaf Business
MalhLtb lets ^3U use C for financial applications re¬
quiring exact decimal math. Built in features include
arrays, amortization, depreciation, interest, percen¬
tages, statistics, discounfed cash flow eoalysis, bond
calculations, internal rate of return, linear estimation,
time value of money, and more,
Greenleaf Software, Inc.
(800) 523-9830 (214) 248-2561
Inquiry 702.
MATH EDITING for the pc
”1 - ET.» k’"Ol + (i=pr)
* MethEdH constructs math equations to be inserted into
WordPerfect and T^X documents.
* Uset-triendiy interface no new word prccsssov
ft? bo toarnod
* MpthBMtSm
!/■ TA f if 50 WcWKif. A«. Su-IO IDO
■ * ■%. fw, t^rii
COmu ism cAnows (614) 294-3535
Inquiry 703.
MATHEMATICIANS— ENGINEERS
Have you ever seen functions of a compiex
variable? Would you like to really undarsiand dif¬
ferential operators like drv, grad and curt? How
about a peek into the fourth dimension? Call or
write for information on our latest PC and Macin¬
tosh software,
Lascaux Graphics
3220 Steuben An., Bronx, NY 10467
(212) 854-7429
Inquiry 704,
SOFTWARE/MORTGAGE
MORTGAGE COMPUTER SYSTEMS
For LENDERS:
• COnSlrLKtion Mortgage Servicing.
• Corw&nllorvef Mortgage Servicing.
» Reverse Mortgage.
For BROKERS:
• Besl fit Borr rope rtyfLe n cte r^Om mi i on .
• Risk Management,
- Auiomadtc Documents Creadon.
Runs on IBM PCDCTrfiT and compatidSos.
synthetic Intelligence Inc-
(212) 567-2390 New York, NY, IdOOl
Inquiry 705,
SOFTWARE/PACKAGING
HARD TO FIND COMPUTER SUPPLIES FOR
SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS & POWER USERS
Cloth binders & sJipcases like IBM's, Vinyl binders, bates,
and tafders in marry szses. Disk pages, elopes, 4
labels. Ujw quantity Imprinling. Butk disJs, Everything your
need fo bring your sotfware to marfcei. Disk and binder
maiters, Mudi mcra! l£w Pricas! Fast service. Gall or write
for a FREE CATALOG.
Anthropomorphic Systems, Limited
376 E. St. Charles Rd., Lombard, IL 60143
t-flOO-DEAL-N OW 312-G2&-S1G0
Inquiry 706.
SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE
LETS TALK LABELS
vua do d*3k labels [W b 3VM
* Bertsr * Faster • Cheaper *
Because we specialize in disk «ab<5li. . Lot's Talk
w* eJ» nave TVvgk Blaews
Mai tere • Binders • Vinyl Pages
We are a complete sottwam packaging service.
Hice & Associates
9303 Cineinnali-COlumbuj Rd., West Chester. OH 450S9
513-777-0133
Inquiry 707.
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 315
The Buyer’s Mart
SOFTWARE/PRINTER
PRINTER GENIUS
Powerful memory resident printer management * Con¬
trol printer featetes from menus or within documents
* Print spool fa disk files or memory * Background print
* File & directory browse * Edit small text • and more. . .
* User friendly pop-up screens * 92 page manual *
Preset for ail printers * Completely flexible * PC
MS-DOS * $69 4 $4 S/H * VISWMC
Nor Software Inc,
527 3rd Ave. Suite 150. New fork. NY 10016
_ (212) 21 3-911 8 _
Inquiry 708,
SOFTWARE/SCANNERS
Optical Character Recognition
Step retyping: PC-OGR™ software will cooverl typed or
printed pages into edtabte text files tor ^xtr word processor
Works Wih HP SoanjeL Panasonic and most other scan¬
ners Suppled with 10 poplar toms. User trainable, you
can teach PC-QCFT Id read virtually any lypestyle, incl.
foreign fonts. PraportionaJ text malr ix printer output, Xerox
copies OK. $3BS ChtekMSWMC/AmExpICOD
Essex Publishing Co.
RO. Boot 391, Cedar Grove, NJ 07009
_ (201) 783-6940 _
Inquiry 709.
SOFTWARE/SCIENTIFIC
DATA ACQUISITION & ANALYSIS ON PCS
* Ff» BpolicjMW. UMtarra. TW tta stoJ </xr OSF' procau centred. A/D
AC Drt npudi Qlt mf*cT ACigiMACif^ tall wi prtwvJfl f* I WSP H S/S*ip
mlutcri In ft 'jour roods nnd bocfcrt
• AO i IEEE ^crates torn Swrtsfc Srtjfen* ard H*
* AhbMm f tftworTF mcAjang PHHL1E ffCTOR FFT lutoMTW «rtqr.
POuFlIEft PERSPECTIVE ll othanMd Iwv systixna vuuyns.
* Mflrtu (lrivort soft**!* (KWi !>-**. UbOrUdry TtKtoOloe^ QuiflrvCkma.
and GdAn SclortAAci^imiifg 2 i 30 wtai
Saa "WlHlIt IfM" puCjA JO, BYTE July. 188ft
LOW GUARANTEED
ALLIGATOR TECHNOLOGIES
PO Sc* 33W Fountain vcailey. CA eTfae
T*l. {7T4J fi5044S4 FAX.. (7l4) SSO-9&S7 MCI, ALL! GATOR
Inquiry 710,
POWERFUL EON SOLVER
$99 RISK FREE OFFER WITH FREE WORD PROCESSOR!
* ‘A real Bargain" iEEE * "Dev. ovtar 40 year* by aensspace vets"
EE TIMES * Pofin&s cisw functions" Eng'g fbofe CURVE1 * Graph
results ACROSS SINGULARITIES * Change ^rarrrotersAxKKtfionft
* Frt 60th order ojnras fpofynotnlBla) to Imported dets * COM-
PLEXfreal roots * Coupled D*tf Eq * Indefinite Integrate * Mom
* MS-DOS. &40k, graphics card
Cell TodayM0(llffi21-0B49 x 330
fl:3CF5:30 PTime * VISA/MOAMEXiCheck
Curve Systems International
747 MOMO Art., LA, CA 90049
Inquiry 711
C SCIENTIFIC LIBRARY
Extensa* library of maris, mathema&cal, and statistical ra/ilnea.
Developed end documented fer use by technical specialists and C
proflrwTHnor^ in research, education, engineering, and scientific ap¬
plications, Over 550 functions, superior clocurnerfiatioo— tour manuals*
including Tutorial, Function Pages, and Example Prugrama, locludos
RaaJ and Connie* Linear Atgetmq, Eigensystarra, Differential Equa¬
te, Quadrature. Smoothing, Filtering and Prediction, Murtiteriato
StafiftiCS. MuttlTSnenSional dptimaation, Linear Ptogrammiig, Curve
Fitting and interpolations, tte S295ot*adenfy and $305 wthc source
code
EIGENWARE TECHNOLOGIES
?309C Li Vista Dr,, Saratoga, CA 55070 (408) 667-1184
Inquiry 712,
ORDINARY/PARTIAL
DIFFERENTIAL EON
SOLVER
FOR THE IBM PC & COMPATIBLES
MICROCOMPATIBLES INC,
301 Prelude Dr. Silver Spring, MD 20901
(301) 593-0683
Inquiry 713.
316 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
SOFTWARE/SCIENTIFIC
OUR CATALOG WILL SAVE YOU
TIME AND MONEY I
ll describes ft GRAPH, a$?9 scientific plotting program, (IQ
MtNSG, a powerful $179 package !w curro filling and model
, development. (Ill) LAPLACE, a simulation program emU°ying
numerical inversion of transforms ($149 uniil 3-1-69), end (iv)
F STRIP lor exponent shipping ($249). Calf ted ary tor our free
IB page catalog with detailed technical application notes.
MIcroMath Scientific Software
Salt Lake City. Ulah 64121-3144
For orders or catalogs calk (300) 942-MATH
Inquiry 714.
Sc ientif ic/Engtn&srf ng/Gra phics Lib raries
Turbo Fiscal, Turbo Ct Microsoft C
Send for FREE catalogue d software leois far Scientists and
Engineers, incudes: Scientific subroutine libraries, device in.
dependent graphics libraries (inducting EGA, HP ptotier and
Lasers support), scientific charting libraries 3-D plotlirug library,
date acquisition libraries. meniHjm-en process comnoi scftmarD.
Versions available for a variety of popular languages.
Qulnn-Curtls
1191 Cheotnul Si., Unll 2-5, Newton, MA 02164
(617) 965-5660
Inquiry 715.
SUBPROGRAM LIBRARIES
Five volumes of source code: Malh , Stall el fas. Graphics,
DOS $ BIOS $ I/O functions. Spectroscopy. Lip lo 99^
loss user coda with our fully tested library. Manuals with
examples guarantee fas! success. Portability insured far
BASIC, PASCAL under MS-DOS, Mac^OS, VMS, HP304
Prices start $145 per wfume. 30 day $ back. VlSA/MOPO,
Scientific LOGICS Inc.
21910 Alcazar Am, Cuportina CA 95014
(408) 446-3575 CompuServe 74017,663
Inquiry 716,
SOFTWARE/SECURITY
Code Saif e"1 Virus Protection System
Protects ail hard disks, ttey sire * Detects any d«mam virus, * F*t>
bqcls all COM. EXE, and Jis&raated OVL HIds. Net jusl Ihu system
tiioa (iibj oihtir products! * Dotods «mi®tion of Scot nocter, cod DOS
* Supports aJIPCTMS DOS nWCftlom * DOfiZJO W4d« Mono, HOre.
CGA. EGA - Indkrta both SVi" and 3teH disks ' Transparert to user
* Warning *ui{i!W will opan, whh optiorig II » ptoWem eccura *
Mtomory residort appm IQ Id 20 K, dopending on the inurribOr Of fitos
TOU FREE tECH SVPFOflT * 30 Bay Monsy bfirt
HOT COFFPROTiCTED U9J9S
ChrlsWaro, InO-
1S41S N. Eden Dr„ Eden Prairie, NiN 55346
TOLL FREE 1-300325-3448 tew ant Mastw CM ocatptod
Inquiry 717,
PC Security Products
Acompfete line for: PC access, back-ups, modems,
software piracy, virus detection, file encryption, and
data protection. Featuring CodeSafa HW copy pro¬
tection wllh sophisticated file encryption. Brochures
and Damns available.
Gamma Security Products
710 Wllahire Blvd., #609, Sanla Monica, CA 90401
TeL 213/394-8622 Fa*: 213^3964214 Ttec 510^303273
Inquiry 718.
KEEP YOUR FILES TO YOURSELF
Prated Irani !lh$ competition all your PC/AT sonsiiiwe files.
Use the ultimate dale security program:
ENCRYPT
EASY! FAST! RELIABLE! No hard disk nequiretf . ffar &Am
safety, do all your file transfers using coded date.
ATTENTION: Coded data Is unbreakable,
$50 30 day 5 back
R* T. RATO
Esl Luz, 173-38 1890 LISBOA PORTUGAL
SOFTWARE/SECURITY
HANDS OFF THE PROGRAM®
- Locks Hard Disk. - Restricts Floppy Usa
■ Protects Subdirectories,
- Normal Use oi DOS Commands and Application Software.
- IBM PC* XT, AT and Ttut Compatibles.
- DOS V2-0 and Higher. Hard Disk System.
- ttwp Other People's HANDS OFF Your System
- 369.93 VI&WlG
SYSTEM CONSULTING, INC.
314 Canterbury Dr„ Pittsburgh, PA 15233
. _ (412) 963-1624 _
Inquiry 720,
SOFTWARE/SORT
OPTTECH SOFTT/MERGE
Extiemely fast SortfMwgefSetect utility, Run as an MS-
DOS command or CALL as a subroutine. Supports
most languages anci fitetypes including Birieue and
dBASE. Unlimited filesizas, multiple keys and much
more! MS-DOS $149. XENIX $249.
(702) 588-3737
Opt-Tech Data Processing
RO. Box m - Zephyr Cove, NV 99449
Inquiry 721.
SOFTWARE/STRATEGIC
WANTED: CEO, Compaq Corp.
, .or Microsoft, or Chrysler, or Union
Carbide, or Georgia Pacific, or, < ,
SuanddS WMA’f put! mi bph(Xl tfHl
dDiik Ill »C<1M pi Ihft mttl teuton in AnvkA Vbu mflk®
mo dK&ona, t&j dm wt h comoenun. yDu »« ma mitee#/, >ou ten «m>-
soci jonc«& Thd oxang e^niatan huu Houwo CNof Ej«m,w puftSM opM,
and la ooilsbia <n tmth PC and Mac brniab, &Vr- $8895 puts you n ana or
tfwr stboj. Mtttonal h&w whMMd kx my S20S4 (pus $S OO sWppUig and
Handling^ It wduf, w tor man mtornnetiop. j^«au can:
BUSINESS WEEK
cto SlralOtPC MariHflflfTHirit Group, lot
3624 Maikei Street, Ftiiladetphia, PA 19x04
_ l’BQQ'445-7099 _
Inquiry 722.
SOFTWARE/TAX PREP
TAX PAK
5th year— Sched A B C D E F R S Frms 1040 1040A
1065 2106 2119 2441 346S 3000 3903 4137 4062 4604
4797 4972 6251 6252 6582 6606 8615. IRS approved
printing tor IBM PC. P(pfe>ssional allows multiple clients.
Batch Pn&cessing, i Tax Organiser: $165. Personal has
abbreviated list of farms & leatures $37i Annual updates
$126 & $27 respectively.
Candelaria Works
3955 Dub Dr., Atlanta, GA 30319 (404) 366-2420
Inquiry 723.
W-2 & 1099 ON FLOPPY
The MAG COLLECTION of programs meke fin IRSfSSA FOR¬
MAT floppy rrom a data entry scre&n or Importsd ASCII fits.
Includes manual and application terms,
* Uftsd n aiion wide • Menus, user friendly
* Step-by-step date &nlry * Prints W-2 6 1099
* Free phene support * PQ compalibte
Illinois Business Machines Inc.
Depart mem MAG
1403 Box 310 Tnoy Rd-, Edwardsville, 1L 62025
PH. U (618) 692-6060
Inquiry 724.
APRIL 15th"
Tax preparation package based on Lotus 1-2-3, 2.0 far
IBM-compatible PC wJ512K. Includes 1Q40, 1Q40A, al)
SchBdufes & 12+ supporting Forms. IRS^acotptabfa
printouts (except 1040, 1Q40A), Easy-iou&e menu func¬
tions &. Help files, 1980 Version $49,95. LOw-Cbst '67
demo available for '68 tax planning.
JD Enterprises
P.0. Box 656 St. Ann MO 63074
(314) 427-3353
Inquiry 719.
Inquiry 725,
The Buyer’s Mart
SOFTWARE/TAX PREP
1988 TAXES
FAST, EASY, ACCURATE
IBM/Com^atiblss, Commodore-Amiga. Prints
forms, audits (axes, multiple returns, 20 forms and
schedules, saves to disk, forecast 1989 taxes,
ONLY S 34,95. Add $4 S/H, M A add 5% Salas Tax,
Check, M.O., Credit Cards.
Quality Business Systems
P 0 Sox 005, Hudson, MA 01749
_ 1 -80 0-S 25-5600 _
Inquiry 726.
STATISTICS
STATA
NEW RELEASE NOW AVAILABLE. Even better
graphics, expended on-line help, and much more.
Still only S590, Quantity and Academic Discounts
available. S2Q Demo, Call toll-free for more infor¬
mation, AX/VISWMC.
1 -800-STAYAPG
Computing Resource Center
10B01 National Boulevard, Los Angelos, CA 90064
_ 1213) 47Q-4341 _
Inquiry 727
THE SURVEY SYSTEM
An easy-to-use package designed specifically for
questionnaire data. Produces banner format, cross
tabs & reiaied tables, statistics (incl. regression) & bar
charts Codes and reports answers to open end
questions. All reports are camera-ready for profes¬
sional presentations. CRT interviewing option.
CREATIVE RESEARCH SYSTEMS
15 Lena Oak Cir.. Da pi. 0. Petaluma, CA 94952
_ 707-765-1 0Q1 _ _
STATISTICS CATALOG!
It you need statistics for IBM PC or Apple II, call
us and 1st our technical advisors help you find l he
statistics programs you need,
Write or call now to get a FREE catalog of statistics
and quality control software.
HUMAN SYSTEMS DYNAMICS
9010 Reseda Blvd„ Sle. 222
North ridge, CA 91324
(800) 451-3030 (816) 993-8536 (CA)
Inquiry 728,
STATISTICS
MINITAB’s a PC of cake!
MINITAB's intuitive commands are easy to use and
remember. Features descriptive statistics, regres¬
sion, time series, chi-square, hkes graphics, much
more. PC version incl. LOTUS interface. 3(Way
trial, network pricing. Call for FREE brochure,
Mlnitab, Inc.
3061 Enterprise Or.. Stine College, PA 16801
_ (614) 238-3290 _
Inquiry 731.
NCSS
Professional, easy fo use, menu driven statistical
system. Used by over 5dKJ0 researchers.
* 5.0 Statistical System — £99
* 5.1 Graphics {20 & 3D}- 559
* 5.3 Power Pac Supplement— £49
* 5.4 Exp, DesignfCiC— $49
* 55 Survival Analysis— S59
We accept checks. PO’s, Visa, MC- Add S3 s/h.
NCSS-B
eSS East 400 North, Kaysville. UT 64037
_ 6 Qt- 546-0445 _
Inquiry 732,
STATISTS II
Comprehensive, powerful and incredibly easy-to-
use Full screen editor, transformations, linear
models (ANOVA, regression, logit, PCA, etc),
AR I M A , most standard slat prosed u res. Clear, wel I
organized documentation. Satisfaction guaranteed.
$169 PC DOS, £99 Apple It.
NH Analytical Software
PO Box W20J Roseville, MM 55113
_ (612) 631-2852 _
Inquiry 733,
A-Cross
This yea re tfi Cross Tab package!
Easy to loam & easy lo user Suparfas!, Suporoasy "Point 6
Pick" operuftofi, tl in con notions. statistics and tabulation
taafores. Oulpur to US05.WKS files. ASCII, and lawr printers.
#t with leading market research firms and Fortune 500 com¬
panies Accepts dBase, ASCII & Column-binary data.
CALL FOR INFO AND FREE DEMO DISK
STRAWBERRY SOFTWARE
42 Pleasant Street, Watertown. MA 02172
(617) 923-6800 or FAX: (617) 9264134
Inquiry 734,
UTILITIES
MATCH PRINTERS TO PC
For less than S30 Match Font and Match-a-Prfnter
are great for foreign and scientific writings. Get all
the characters you need from most programs and
printers (Apple & Epson printers, daisywheels, etc,).
Greek. French. Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish.
Japanese, graphics. . . tt>u name il! To receive a
demo disk send S5 refundable upon purchase to;
Call or write 018-906-6791
MATCH SOFTWARE
5426 Coldwaiar Canyon, North Hollywood, CA B1606-HT3
Inquiry 737.
ATTENTION FORMAT VICTIMS!!!
REARGUARD password protects you from accidental
formatting of your hard disk. Not memory resident nor
modifies DOS. Completely automated installation.
Manual and diskette provided.
ONLY $29.00 4 £4J0Q &H VI$AWl-OCQD U PS B/R
MICROBRIDGE COMPUTERS
655 Sky Way #12$ San Carles. CA 94070
Order toll free 1-800-523-8777
415-593-8777 (CA) 212-334-1058 (NY)
TELEX EZUNK S 2873089 FAX 415-593-7675
Inquiry 738.
COPY AT TO PC
The 1.2mB drive has tong been known to read bin NOT
reliably WRITE on 360k B floppies. With 'CPYAT2PC '•
L2mB drives CAN reliably WFlITE 360kS Noppios saving a
Slot for a second hard disk or backup tape. "CPYAT2PC" (Not
Copy Protected) offers 'ihe preferable SOFTWARE SOLU¬
TION.' ONLY £79+ £4 S/H VlSA/MC/COD UPS B7R
MICROBRIDGE COMPUTERS
655 Skyway, San Carlos, CA 94070
Order foil free 1-800-523-0777
415-593-0777 (CA) Z12-334-1B5B (NY)
TELEX EZLNK 62B73QB9 _ FAX 4l5-59£-?o?5
Inquiry 739.
Recover deleted files fast!
Disk Explorer now includes automatic tile recovery ¥bu
lype in ihe deleted fiJe£ name. Disk Explorer finds and
restores 4 Disk Explorer also shows whai really on disk;
view, change or create formats, change a file's status,
change data in any sector MS-DOS $75 U.S. CheckCredi
ca/d welcome
QUAID SOFTWARE LIMITED
45 Charles St. E 3rd FI.
Toronio, Ontario, Canada M4Y 1S2
_ (416) 961-8243 _
STATISTICAL NAVIGATOR™
Statistical Ma^.galor an expert system using A I strategics id help
guide the researcher so the approprime statical anarysis Besud
on your ii'-swors, il suggests several analyses ranged by suicabilrly.
ir explains whai ihe analysis does and ihj« i| fils your objectives
and assumptions. Special inlro price 59995+s/ti
VISA/MCM-MEXIPO. 30 daygveraNee.
The Idea Works, Inc.
100 West Snarwood. Columbia. MO 65203
1-888-537-4866 314-445-4554
Inquiry 7 29.
SIR/DBMS DEMO KIT (7.5 Mb) $49.95
Sr j%C O 1975. Slfi/OBMS has PIONEERED Advanced DBMS
Tochnokuy DESIGNEE 10 handle the changing complex mes or
StlenllTIc, Engineering, end Research Dalabaso Management.
SIFYDOMS rs also DESIGNED Ed Provide THE BEET DIRECT In¬
sert arcs lo S AS. SPSS. BWDR 8 SYSHW. SlfVDBMS CMors Upo
Apphceilon Level RcJlo&ilMy from PCs thru Suparcompulafs’
MAYBE YOU SHOULD TRY SlfVDBMS??
Order Now! Ret Buyer's A (art Special Olied
SIR, A Division of Inter Systems inc.
312-480 -9270 (IL) 703-642-1600 (W)
Inquiry 730.
StatPac Gold™
Vbled World s Best Statistical & Forecasting Package
in 1987 by PG World Magazme readers Six times
more votes lhan the next closest competitor. More
comprehensive & easier to use lhan all olhers. Gel
the facts. Call now tor your FREE brochure.
1 -0QQ-328 -4 807
Walonick Associates, Jnc,
6500 Nicollet Ave. S., Minneapolis.. MN 55423
(612) 866-9022
Inquiry 735.
UTILITIES
VIDEO SYSTEM TEST
This menu-driven utility tesls your PC/XT7AT video
monitor and controller board combination for com¬
patibility with 17 video modes, including 85WA.
VGA, EGA, CGA, and Hercules. Also provides test
pattern for screen adjustment. £25.
Adventa Corporation
lGt£ E. El Camino Real. Sle 223, Santa Clara, CA 94067
_ (408) 946-8545 _
Inquiry 736.
XPage Breaks 640k!
Why buy expensive EMS boards? OS/2 is not go¬
ing to use it. XPaga turns your POXT/AT hard disk
space or AT extended memory as EMS memory.
It’s compatible with most DOS EMS applications.
Write for free information or send check/money
order S39 + $3 sfh to:
RMC Technologies
7 Baron Park La., 7*21, Burlington, MA 01903
_ (617) 272 B206 _
Inquiry 740,
LOGGER®
Logger, for IBM-PG and compatibles, tracks and reports:
User, Time on. Time olt, Directories used, Programs
used. Program slarttend lime, and calculates totals.
Tracks diradoriesyriles: Opened. Created, Renamed.
Deleted. Completely transparent. Retails for £74.95 with
quantity discounts available.
System Automation Software, Inc.
8555 18th 51.. Silver Spring. MD 20919
1-800-321-3267 or 1-301-565-3080
Inquiry 741*
FEBRUARY 1939 - BYTE 317
The Buyer’s Mart
UTILITIES
!
WORD PROCESSING
1
WORD PROCESSING
$79.95!!
Order the RED Utilities now! Programs include:
Disk cache speeds hard and floppy disks. Printer
spooler. Batch file compiler speeds batch files,
Paih command for data files. Wild card except
lions. Sort directories. Over 10 more programs.
IBM PC. Visa/MC. Send for free catalog.
The Wenham Software Company
5 Burtey St, ttfenham, MA 019&d {508) 774-7036
DuangJan
Bilingual word processor for English andi Arme¬
nian, Bengali EurttfLalin. Greek, Hindi, Khmer, Lac\
Punjabi, Russian. Sinhalese, Tamil, Thai. Viei . . .
S1D9+S5 s/h (foreign + $12 s/h) Font editor includ¬
ed. For IBM wilh dol-mathx & LaserJet printer.
Demo S6 + SI s/h,
MegaChomp Company
3524 Caiman A».r Philadelphia, PA 19149-1606
{215) 331-2748
PC-Write 3.0 — Shareware
fast, lull featured word processor tor ISM PC. New edits
large files & multiple columns. Also spell check,
mailrnenge. networking, ASCII, and macros. Easy lo use,
optional menus. Supports 500 printers incl. lasers. Soft*
ware, guide and tutorial on disk: SI 6. Registration wilh
manual:, support newsletter arid 2 free updates: $99.
90 day money back guarantee. VISA7MC.
Quicksort 1-0 00- 88 8- 8088
219 First Ave* N-, ^224-BYTC, Seattle, WA 98109
Inquiry 742.
Inquiry 744.
Inquiry 745.
WORD PROCESSING
GRAPHICS LIBRARIES
FARSI / GREEK I ARABIC / RUSSIAN
Hebrew, all European, Scandinavian, pig* gitlw Hindi, Pun*
jafci. Bengafi. Gutarall. Tamil, Thai, Korean. Vial. Of IPA. Full*
featured multilanguage want processor supports nn-actaon
foreign characters and NLO printing with no hardware
modifications, includes font Editor. $355 dot matrk; S150
adri'i for fasar: $19 donva, SfH In U,5. incl'd, Req. PC, 640K,
grajrtifeg. 30 day Guarantee. MCfVISAfAMEX
GAMMA PRODUCTIONS, INC,
710 Witehire 8!vd.. Suite 609, Santa Monica, CA 90401
313/394-8622 Ttur 5106000273 Gamma Pro SNM
YOUR SALES MESSAGE
about the special computer product or service
(hat you provide belongs in print.
THE BUYER’S MART
can help you reach computer professionals and
produce valuable inquiries lor your company 1
Call Brian Higgins for mom information
603-924-3754
GRAPHICS LIBRARIES
Wary Fast 2W3D Auloscaiing Graphics tor Microsoft
Languages. 3D Linos Use Color. Fast Polygon Fill,
Salid/WireiTame. Color/Blinking Tffltl, X-Y, Bar, Conlour
& 3D Fishnet Graphs. Supports CGA/EGAiVGAJHerc 1
& Dot Metrix/Lase r/Plollers (a Full Resolution. Prinl
Screen Pod, $140 NO ROYALTIES FORTRAN Source
4 $30.
CHIRP TECHNICAL SERVICES
RO. Sox 551, Del Man CA 92014-0551
(619} 632-9510
Inquiry 743.
Inquiry 746,
BACK ISSUES FOR SALE
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
Jan,
$4,00
$6.00
$6,00
SPECIAL ISSUES and INDEX
Feb.
$4.00
$6.00
$6.00
BYTE ’83-*84 INDEX $3.00
March
$4.00
$6.00
$6.00
$6.00
BYTE 1985 INDEX $3.00
April
$4.00
$6.00
$6.00
BYTE 1986 INDEX S3. 00
May
$4.00
$6.00
$6,00
BYTE 1987 INDEX $3.00
June
$4.00
$6.00
$6.00
$6.00“'
1985 INSIDE THE IBM PCs $4.00
Ml _
$6.00
$6.00
$6.00
1986 INSIDE THE IBM PCs $5.00
Aug.
$4.00
$6.00
$6.00
$6.00
1987 fNSIDE THE IBM PCs $6.00
Sept.
$4.00
$6.00
$6.00
$6.00
1988 INSIDE THE IBM PCs $6.00
Oct.
$4.00
$6.00
S6.00
$6.00
APPLICATIONS SOFTWARE TODAY SPECIAL $4.00
Circle and send requests with payments to:
BYTE Back Issues
One Phoenix Mill Lane
Peterborough, NH 03458
U a US bank. (603) 924-9281
Exp. Date
r Canada and Mexico ; and $2. 00 per copy to foreign countries (sur-
*■ foreign delivery
1 Advertising section of book.
State Zip
Nov.
$4.00
$6.00
Dec.
S4.00
$6.00
$6.00
$6.00
* Benchmarks Issue Vi Price
□ Check enclosed
Payments from foreign countries must he made in VS funds payable c
□ VISA □ MasterCard Card §
Signature
The above prices include postage in the t/S. Please add $ .50 pea copy for
face delivery). Please allow 4 weeks for domestic delivery and 12 weeks fo\
European customers please refer to Back Issue order form in Internationa
Name
Address
City
318 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Special !
CompuGUARD
Anti-VIRUS ... $75
Access Control ... $129
Best Buy
see Floppy Drives
1070%
SINCE 1984
THE PRIMITIVE DRAUGHTSMAN
PRODUCTS NOT LISTED ... CALL!
CAD...etC
PC & MAC
New Orders: 1-800-621-3999
AST Premium
286/386
Call
HH
DRAFIX
Ultra, 1 Plus or 3D Module
Call
MITSl
Diamond Scan
$477
BISHI
AT 40Mb Disk
23 ms
$379
VENTURA
PUB 2.0
$457
PAGE¬
MAKER
Call
Summagraphics
Mac 12x12 Tablet
$269
DESIGN CAD
Standard or 3D
$145
SMART
1200B int.
$59
MODEM
2400B int.
$115
PANAI
1091l-m2
$179
SONIC
1124
Call
PRINTERS & LASERS
Alps . Call
Canon BJ-130 . Call
Citizen 180-D . 157
MSP-15E . 295
MSP-40 . 269
MSP-45 . 389
MSP-50 . 345
MSP-55 . 440
Premiere 35 . 439
Trbute 124 . 439
Trbute 224 . 579
Dioonix 150 . 295
HP LaserJet II . 1690
JDL 850 Series . Cali
NEC LC890 . Call
Panasonic 1080i-m2 . 155
1091i-m2 . 189
1124 . Call
1592/1595 . 382/418
1524 . 515
Toshiba 321-SL . 455
341-SL . 609
351 -SX . 888
Others . Call
MONITORS
Amdekl 280 & Card . 639
210A . 87
Hitachi 20“ SuperScan . 2090
Mitsubishi Diamond Scan 1381 . . 477
Moniterm Viking . Call
NEC Multisync II . 565
MultisyncGS . 185
Others . Call
Samsung . Call
Sigma Designs LaserView . Call
Sony Multiscan 1302 . 650
Multiscan 1303 . 475
Zenith 1490 Flatscreen . 579
SOFTWARE
AutoSketch® . 59
BoeingGraph . 189
By-Line . 169
Carbon Copy Plus . 103
Clipper . 369
Copy II PC . 18
Corefast . 75
Da c Easy 3.0 . 58
dBase IV . Call
DesignCad . 145
Desklink . 92
DesqView . 69
Drafix 1 Plus . Call
Drafix Ultra . Call
Drafix 3D Mod & Options . Call
Dollars & Sense . 95
Easy Xtra . 54
SOFTWARE (cont.)
Excell PC . 281
FastBack . 69
FastBackPlus . 85
FormTool . 52
Freelance Plus . 293
Fox Base Plus . 179
GEM Draw Plus . 159
Generic Cadd 3.0 . 48
Generic Cadd Others . Call
Harvard Graphics . 255
In House Acct . 107
King Quest IV . 35
LaplinkPlus . 74
Liesure Suit Larry II . 35
Lighting Hard Disk Speedup . 59
Lotus 1232.01 . Call
Lotus Agenda . Call
Managing Your Money . 113
MathCad 2.0 . 195
Microsoft Flight Sim . 35
Microsoft Windows 2.0 . 56
MS-Dos 3.3 . 95
Norton Util 4.0 . 45
Novell Netware 286 . Call
PageMaker 3.0 . Call
Paradox 2.0 . 391
PC Tools Deluxe . Call
PathMinder4.0 . 55
Peachtree Accounting II . 145
Peachtree Quere . Call
PFS: First Choice 3.0 . 85
PFS: First Publisher 2.0 . 67
PFS: Professional File 2.0 . Call
PFS: Professional Plan 1.02 . 51
PFS: Professional Write 2.0 . 102
Plan Perfect . 185
Q&A . 177
Q& A Write . 115
Quattro . 132
Rapid File . 172
R:BaseforDOS . 415
ShipMate™ (ups Manifest) . 199
SideKickPlus . Call
Smart Sysmen . 418
Sprint . 115
Tops . 101
Turbo Basic, C, or Pascal . 85
Ventura Publishing 2.0 . 458
VersaCad & Libraries . Call
Windows . Call
WordPerfect 5.0 . 213
XTree . 33
XTreePro . 58
XTreeNet . Call
DIGITIZERS & PLOTTERS
Calcomp 1 023-GT . Call
1043-GT . 5898
Drawing Brd 12x12 16-Btn . 369
Enter Sweet-p 600 . 598
Houston Instruments
DMP 41/42 . 2098
HITACHI Digitizer
10 Year Warranty
Puma Pro 12x12
(replacing Tiger Tablet)
4-Btn Cursor, 1-Btn Pen
& Mouse Emulator.
$349
Digitizers & Plotters (cont.)
DMP 51MP . 3550
DMP 51 . 3200
DMP 52MP . 2600
DMP 52 . 2300
DMP56A . 3800
DMP 61 . 2890
DMP 62 . 3990
MP Options . Call
Hitachi Puma Tab (10-Year Warranty)
PumaPro 12x12.4btn.Pen.SW . .349
PumaPro 12x12, 12btn,SW . 369
loline . Call
JDL 850 Series . Call
Kurta IS 12x12 . 285
IS 12x17 . 485
Summagraphics 12x12 Plus . 329
18x12 Prow/4 Butt & Stylus ... .559
Mac Bit Pad 12x12, 4But, Sty ...269
Logical Connection 256/51 2k _ Call
Others . Call
ScanMan . 155
Logical Connection 256/51 2k _ Call
Others . Call
ScanMan . 155
Clones 286/386 . Call
WANTED
Original Programs - utilities,
applications, etc. Earn
royalities in just 90 days .
Mail or Fax your info to attn: Bill.
MS-DOS & MAC compatible only.
DRIVES, MODEMS & FAX
Fujitsu 3.5“ 720k Drive . 84
Mitsubishi AT 40/64 Mb Hard Drive
1/2 ht , 23ms . 379
Panasonic FAX Board . 689
Seagate ST225w/card . 260
ST238 30Mb w/card . 285
Sharp Fax UX-140 & Phone _ 969
Smart Modem 1200B int w/sw .... 58
2400B int w/sw . 115
Teac 3.5" 720k Drive . 79
3.5“ 1.44Mb Drive . 95
5.25“ 360k Drive . 75
5.25“ 1.2Mb Drive . 87
US Robotics . Call
BOARDS ..NETWORKS
3-Com Etherlink . Call
Adage AD 10/4 . Call
AD10/8L . Call
ArcNet . Call
Artist . Call
AST . Call
ATI EGA Wonder . 169
VIP VGA . 249
Copy II Opt Board Dlx . 95
EtherNetPlus . Call
Genoa VGA 760x1024 . 379
Hercules Graphics Plus . 169
Intel AboveBoard 286/5 12k . 359
AboveBoard PS 286/51 2k .... 388
Paradise EGA 480 . Call
VGA Plus . Call
VGA Plus 16 . Call
VGA Pro . Call
Sigma Designs VGA . 209
Tops Flashcard . 143
Verticom . Call
Video 7 Vega Deluxe . 177
V-Ram . Call
Vega VGA . $255
Western Digital EtherNet Plus . . . Call
It PAYS to
BUY- MHI !
Service You
Expect I!
Volume Bids
Wecome!
VISA
MASTERCARD
PO’s
Just Call First.
COMPUTERS
AST Premium
286 Model 80 . 1349
286 Model 140X . 2098
386 Model 300 . 2475
Mitsubishi MP286L . Call
NEC Multispeed . 1079
Multispeed EL II . 1423
Multispeed HD . 2209
Toshiba Laptops . Call
T1000 . 779
Zenith Laptops
SuperSport-Dual . 1570
SuperSport 20Mb . 2357
SuperSport 286 20Mb . 3298
SuperSport 286 40Mb . Call
Intel
coprocessors
Genuine & New
8087-2 .
...132
80287-8 .
. . . 205
80287-10 .
. . . 239
80387-16 .
...Call
80387-20 .
...Call
80387-25 .
...549
80387-SX .
...398
80C287A (for Laptops) . . .
..299
MOUSE
Logitech C7 Serial or Bus . . .
. 64
C7 Clear Mouse & Paint . .
. 85
HiRez Bus .
. 82
Bus & Paint .
. 82
Serial & Publisher .
....104
OPTICAL
OptiDriver Kit . 525
40 ms equiv. for most optiDrives
DataBase Special
dBase IV ...455
FoxBase Plus ... 179
Paradox ...429
Rapid File ... 175
Rbase for DOS ...415
Q&A... 177
Quattro ... 149
MHI Warehouse, Inc.
8129 N. 35th Ave. #2-306
Phoenix, AZ 85051
New Orders:
1-800-621-3999
Order Info: 602-99 7-8877
Fax:602-943-3833
IP re-approved P.O.'s are welcome. Prices reflect cash discount and are subject to change without notice. Product com-
patbility, warranties, & claims are responsibility of manufacturer only. All returns are subject to a restocking fee. Per-
sonal/Corrpany checks delay shipping. AZ orders only add 6.7% tax. Orders are processed same Day. International orders
Call (602)861-1090.
Circle 163 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 319
J
Mail Order Electronics -Worldwide
ameco
ELECTRONICS
p Mail
24 HOUR ORDER HOTLINE
NEC V20 V30 CHIPS MICROPROCESSOR COMPONENTS MISC. COMPONENTS
Replace the 8086 or 8088 in Your IBM PC and
Part No. Increase Its Speed by up to 30%! p,.jce
UPD70108-5 (5MHz) V20 Chip . $7.49
UPD 701 08-8 (8MHz) V20 Chip _ $1~6r75 $ 9.49
UPD70108-10 (l0MHz)V20Chip....$+fc$5 $12.25
UPD70116-8 (8MHz) V30 Chip . $9^5 $ 7.95
UPD701 1 6-10 (10MHz) V30 Chip .... $10.95 $1 5.49
7400
7400 . SALE
7402 . 29
7404 . SALE
7405 . 35
7406 . 39
7407 . SALE
7408 . 35
7410 . SALE
7414 . SALE
7416 . SALE
7417 . SALE
7420 . 29
7430 . SALE
7432 . 39
7438 . SALE
7442 . SALE
7445 . SALE
7446 . 89
7447 . 89
7448 . 1.95
7472 . SALE
7473 . 39
7474 . SALE
7475 . 49
7476 . 45
7485 . SALE
7486 . SALE
7489 . 1.95
7490 . 49
7493 . 45
74121 . SALE
74123 . SALE
74125 . SALE
74126 . SALE
74143 . SALE
74150 . SALE
74154 . 1.35
74158 . SALE
74173 . SALE
74174 . SALE
74175 . SALE
74176 . SALE
74181 . SALE
74189 . SALE
74193 . 79
74198 . SALE
74221 . SALE
74273 . SALE
74365 . SALE
74367 . SALE
74LS
74LSOO . SALE
74LS02 . SALE
74LS04 . SALE
74LS05 . SALE
74LS06 . 59
74LS07 . 59
74LS08 . 28
74LS10 . SALE
74LS14 . SALE
74LS27 . SALE
74LS30 . SALE
74LS32 . SALE
74LS42 . 49
74LS47 . 89
74LS73 . SALE
74LS74 . SALE
74LS75 . SALE
74LS76 . 39
74LS85 . 59
74LS86 . 29
74LS90 . SALE
74LS93 . SALE
74LS123 . SALE
74LS125 . 49
74LS138 . 49
74LS139 . SALE
74LS154 . 1.19
74LS157 . 45
74LS158 . SALE
74LS163 . SALE
74LS164 . SALE
74LS165 . 75
74LS166 . SALE
74LS173 . SALE
74LS174 . SALE
74LS175 . SALE
74LS189 . SALE
74LS191 . SALE
74LS193 . 69
74LS221 . SALE
74LS240 . SALE
74LS243 . SALE
74LS244 . SALE
74LS245 . SALE
74LS259 . 99
74LS273 . 89
74LS279 . 49
74LS322 . 3.49
74LS365 . SALE
74LS366 . SALE
74LS367 . SALE
74LS368 . SALE
74LS373 . SALE
74LS374 . SALE
74LS393 . SALE
74LS590 . 5.95
74LS624 . 1.95
74LS629 . SALE
74LS640 . SALE
74LS645 . SALE
74LS670 . SALE
74LS688 . 2.39
74S/PROMS*
74S00 . SALE .19
74S04 . SALE .19
74S08 . SALE .19
74S10 . SALE .19
74S32 . SALE .19
74S74 . SALE .19
74585 . SALE .49
74586 . SALE .19
74S124 . SALE 1.25
74S174 . SALE .25
74S175 . SALE .25
74S188* .
74S189 .
74S196 . SALE
74S240 .
74S244 . SALE
74S253 . SALE
74S287* .
74S288* .
74S373 . SALE
74S374 . SALE
74S472" . SALE
74F00 . SALE
74F04 .
74F08 . SALE
74F10 . SALE
74F32 .
74F74 . SALE
74F86 . SALE
74F138 . SALE
.19 74F139 . SALE .49
25 74F157 . SALE .49
.19 74F193 . 2.95
.19 74F240 . 69
.25 74F244 . 69
25 74F253 . SALE .49
.29 74F373 . 79
.49 74F374 . SALE .59
-CMOS
MISCELLANEOUS CHIPS
Part No. _ Price
D765AC . 9^5 2.95
WD9216 . 3.95
Z80, Z80A, Z80B SERIES
Z80 . 1.19
Z80-CTC . 4£9 .99
Z80-PI0 . *29 .99
Z80A. . 1.29
Z80A-CTC . 1.65
Z80A-DART . . . 4t95 3.95
Z80A-PI0 . 4r69 1.49
Z80A-SI0/0 .... 9^5 2.95
Z80B . 2.75
Z80B-CTC. . . . 9^53.25
Z80B-PI0 . 3.95
6500/6800/68000 SER.
6502 . 2.65
65C02(CMOS) . 7.75
6520 . 1.95
6522 . 2.95
6532 . 5*9 4.95
6551 . 2.95
65C802 (CMOS) +595 14.75
6800 . -595 1.49
6802 . 2.95
6810 . 595 .99
6821 . 1.75
6840 . 9*92.95
6500/6806/ 68000 Coni.
Part No. _ Price
6845 . ft75 2.49
6850 . 595 1.49
6852 . 5*5 .59
6854 . 549 .99
MC68000L8 . 9.95
MC68000L10 . 4595 10.95
MC6801 OLIO. 4935 39.95
MC68020RC12B .... 99.95
8000 SERIES
8031 . 9^5 3.49
80C31 . 8.95
8035 . 4*9 1.25
8039 . 595 1.59
8080A . 9251.49
8085A . 2.49
8086 . 3.95
8086- 2 . 695 5.49
8087 (5MHz) . 99.95
8087- 1 (10MHz).. 194.95
8087- 2 (8MHz)... 159.95
8088 (5MHz) . . . *95 3.49
8088- 2 (8MHz) 695 5.95
8116 . 495 3.95
8155 . 2.49
8155-2 . 3.49
8156 . 2.95
8212 . 2.29
8224 . 295 1.95
8228 . 595 1.49
0000 SERIES Cont.
Part No. _ Price
8237-5 . 495 3.95
8243 . 1.75
82 50 A . 4953.95
82 SOB (For IBM) .. 595 4.95
8251 A . 1.69
8253-5 . 1.95
8254 . 3.95
8255A-5 . 2.95
8259-5 . 295 1.75
8272 . 695 2.95
8279-5 . 295 2.75
8741 . 9.95
8742 . 499517.95
8748 (25V) . 7.95
8748H (HMOS) (2 IV)... 9.95
8749 . 9.95
8751 (3.5-8MH?).... 37.95
8751 H (3.5- 1 2Mllz) .. 39.95
8755 . 4695 12.95
DATA ACQUISITION
ADC0804LCN . 2.79
ADC0808CCN . . 596 5.49
ADC0809CCN . . 999 3.29
ADC1205CCJ-1 .... 19.95
DAC0808LCN . . -H9 1.49
DAC1008LCN . 5.95
AY-3-1 01 5D . . 495 3.95
AY-5-1013A . 1.95
MICROPROCESSOR SALE!
Part No. _ _____ _ Price
8052AHBASIC CPU w/BASIC Interpreter . $24.95
MC68701 8-Bit EPROM Microcomputer . $14.95
MC68705P3S 8-Bit EPROM Microcomputer . $8.95
MC68705U3S 8-Bit EPROM Microcomputer. ..... $10.95
80286-10 16-Bit Hi Performance MPU . $59.95
80287-8 Math Co-processor (8MHz) . $229.95
80287-10 Math Co-processor (10MHz) . $279.95
80387-1 6 Math Co-proc. (1 6MHz) grid array . . . $439.95
80387-20 Math Co-proc. (20MHz) grid array . . . $589.95
80387-25 Math Co-proc, (25MHz) grid array ... $689.95
CD4076 . 59
CD4081 . 22
CD4082 . 22
CD4093 . 35
CD4094 . 89
CD40103 . 1.49
CD401 07 . 49
CD4510 . 69
CD4511 . 69
CD4520 . 75
CD4522 . 79
CD4538 . 79
CD4541 . 89
CD4543 . 79
CD4553 . 3.95
CD4555 . 79
CD4559 . 7.95
CD4566 . 1.95
CD4583 . 59
CD4584 . 49
CD4585 . 69
MCI 441 IP . 7.95
MC14490P . 4.49
*4116-15
4128-20
*4164-100
*4164-120
*4164-150
*4164-200
•TMS4416-12
*41256-80
*41256-100
*41256-120
*41256-150
*41464-15
*51 1000P-10
•514256P-10
*2016-12
2018-45
2102
2114N
21 14N-2L
21C14
5101
•6116P-3
*61 16LP-3
*6264 LP- 12
•6264P-15
•6264LP-15
6514
*43256- 15L
•62256LP-12
TMS2516
TMS2532
TMS2532A
TMS2564
TMS2716
1702 A
2708
2716
2716-1
27C16
2732
2732A-20
2732A-25
27C32
2764-20
2764-25
2764A-25
2764-45
27C64-15
27128-20
27128-25
27 1 28A-25
27C1 28-25
27256-20
27256-25
27C256-25
27512-20
27512-25
2816A-25
281 7 A
2865A-30
52B13 (21V)
-DYNAMIC RAMS-
1 6,384 x 1 (1 50ns) . *99 1 .25
131 ,072 x 1 (200ns) (Piggyback) . 4.49
65,536x1 (100ns) . 3.49
65,536x1 (120ns) . 2.95
65,536x 1 (150ns) . 2.59
65,536x1 (200ns) . 1.75
1 1 6,384 x 4 (1 20ns) . 4E?5 6.75
262,144x 1 (80ns) . 13.49
262,144x1 (100ns) . 12.49
262,144x1 (120ns) . 11.95
262.144x 1 (150ns) . 11.49
65,536 x 4 (1 50ns) (4464) . 1 4.75
1 ,048,576 x 1 (1 00ns) I Meg . . . 9995 32.95
262,144x4 (100ns) 1 Meg... 5995 49.95
- STATIC RAMS -
2048 x 8 (120ns) . 4*9 3.75
2048 x 8 (45ns) . 6.95
1024x 1 (350ns) . 89
1024x4 (450ns) . 99 .79
1 024 x 4 (200ns) Low tower . 1.49
1024x4 (200ns) (CMOS) . 49
256 x 4 (450ns) (CMOS) . 995 2.49
2048 x 8 (1 50ns) (CMOS) . *95 3.49
2048 x 8 (1 50ns) LP CMOS . 599 3.95
8 1 92 x 8 (1 20ns) LP CMOS . 1 0.49
8 1 92 x 8 (1 50ns) (CMOS) . 9.95
8 1 92 x 8 ( 1 50ns) LP CMOS . 1 0.25
1 024 x 4 (350ns) (CMOS) . 995 3.49
32,768 x 8 (150ns) Low tower . 18.95
32,768 x 8 (1 20ns) LP CMOS . 2 1 .95
- EPROMS -
2048 x 8 (450ns) 25V . 695 5.95
4096x8 (450ns) 25V . 595 5.25
4096 x 8 (450ns) 21V . *49 3.25
8 1 92 x 8 (450ns) 25V . 695 4.95
2048 x 8 (450ns) 3 Voltage . 695 6.49
256x8 (IjiS) . 4.95
1024x8 (450ns) . 6.95
2048 x 8 (450ns) 25V . 3.75
2048 x 8 (350ns) 25V . 495 3.95
2048 x 8 (450ns) 25V (CMOS).... 495 3.75
4096 x 8 (450ns) 25V . 3.95
4096 x 8 (200ns) 21V . 4.25
4096 x 8 (250ns) 21V . 3.95
4096x8 (450ns) 25V (CMOS) .... *95 4.25
8192 x 8 (200ns) 21V . 4.25
8 1 92 x 8 (250ns) 21V . 3.59
81 92 x 8 (250ns) 1 2.5V . 3.69
8 1 92 x 8 (450ns) 21V . 3.39
8 1 92 x 8 ( 1 50ns) 1 2.5V (CMOS) . 5.95
16,384 x 8 (200ns) 21V . 6.95
16,384 x 8 (250ns) 21V . 5.95
16,384 x 8 (250ns) 12.5V . 595 4.95
16,384 x 8 (250ns) 21V (CMOS) . 5.95
32,768 x 8 (200ns) 1 2.5V . 695 6.25
32,768 x 8 (250ns) 1 2.5V . 5.49
32,768 x 8 (250ns) 1 2.5V (CMOS) . 695 4.95
65,536 x 8 (200ns) 1 2.5V . 1 0.95
65,536 X 8 (250ns) 1 2.5V . 9.95
- EEPROMS - '
2048 x 8 (250ns) 5V Read/Wnle 695 5.49
2048 x 8 (350ns) 5V Read/Write .... 795 6.95
8192 x 8 (300ns) 5V Read/Write . 9.95
2048 x 8 (350ns) 5V Read Only . 1 .49
COMMODORE CHIPS
LAG570 . 9.95
WD1770 . 695 7.49
SI3052P . +95 .99
6504 A. . 1.19
6507 . 2.95
6510 . 12.95
6522 . 2.95
6525 . 495 3.95
6526 . 4*9513.95
6532 . 5*9 4.95
6545-1 . 3.95
6560 . 4995 8.95
6567 . 24.95
6569 . -459513.95
6572 . 4995 7.9E
6581 (12V).... 4995 10.49
6582 (9V) _ 4*95 12.95
8502 . 7.95
8564 . 495 2.95
8566 . 995 7.95
8701 . 9.95
8721 . 4*95 9.95
8722 . 4995 1 0.95
310654-05 . 9.95
3 180 18-03 . 4995 10.95
8019-03 . . 4995 10.95
82S100PLA** . 15.95
901225-01 . .459513.95
901226-01 . . 4595 13.95
901227-03 . 15.95
901229-05 . 15.95
*No specs, available
“Note: 82S100PLA =
U17 (C-64)
74C/CMOS
74C00 Sale .19
74C02 Sale .19
74C04 Sale .19
74C08 Sale .19
74C10 Sale .15
74C14 . 49
74C32 Sale .19
74C74 . 49
74C85 . 1.49
74C86 Sale .19
74C89 . 2.95
74C90 . 99
74C151 Sale 1.49
74C154 Sale 2.75
74C157 Sale 1.25
74C 160 Sale .49
74C1G1 Sale .49
74C162 Sale .49 I
74C173 . 59 I
74C174 Sale .39
74C175 Sale .59
74C192 Sale .99
74C194 Sale .49
74C221 . 1.79
74C240 Sale .75
74C244 ... 1.79
74C373 Sale 1.49
74C374 Sale 1.49
74C91 1 . . . 6.95
74C912 Sale 7.95
74C915 Sale 1.19
74C917 Sale 3.95 I
74C920 Sale 3.95
74C921 Sale 2.95
74C922 . . 3.95
74C923 . 3.95
74C925 . 5.49
74C926 . . . 5.95
TANTALUM CAPACITORS
TM. 1/35 ,1fj( @ 35V . 19 I 7M4.7/35 4.7//f@35V. ... .45
TM1/35 1/if @ 35V . 19 TM6.8/35 6.8,if @ 35V. ... .49
TM2.2/35 2.2/il @ 35V . 25 | TM10/35 10<if @ 35V . 59
POTENTIOMETERS
Values available (insert ohms into space marked "XX"): 500fl, IK, 2K,
5K, 10K, 20K, 50K, 100K, 200K, 1MEG
43PXX Watt, 15 Turn .99 | 63PXX Yi Watt, 1 Turn .89
TRANSISTORS AND DIODES
PN2222 . 13 PN2907 . 13 1N4004 . 12
2N2222A . 29 2N4401 . 12 1N4148 . 07
2N3055 . 65 1N270 . 25 1N4735 . 29
2N3904 . 12 1N751 . 15 C106B1 . 49
SWITCHES
JMT 1 23 SPOT, On-On 1.19 1 206-8 SPOT, 16-pin OIP 1 .25
MPC1 21 SPOT, On-Olt-On 1 .1 9 | MS 1 02 SPST, Momentary .39
D-SUB CONNECTORS
DB25P Male, 25 pm .69 [ DB25S Female, 25-pin .75
LEDS
XC556R TW. Red . 13 I XC556Y TH«, Yellow . 17
XC5566 TW, Green . 17 | XC556C TP*, Clear/Red . 17
1C SOCKETS
Low Profile Wire Wrap (Gold) Level #2
8LP . 11 8WW . 59
14LP . 12 14WW . 65
16LP . 13 16WW . 69
74HCT86 . SALE
74HCT138 .
.15 74HCT175. .
.15 74HCT240. .
.17 74HCT244. .
.25 74HCT245. .
.15 74HCT373. .
.39 74HCT374. .
SALE .25
SALE .59
. SALE 49
SALE .49
SALE .45
LINEAR
24 LP . 25 24WW . 1,19
28LP . 27 28WW . 1.39
40LP . 29 I 40WW . 1.89
Soldertail Standard (Gold & Tin) & Header Plug Sockets Also Available
74HC HB-SREED CMOS
DS0026CN . 1.95 LM1458N . 35
TL074CN . 99 LM1488N . 45
TL084CN . 89 DS14C88N (CMOS) ... 1.19
AF100-1CN . 8.95 LM1489N . 45
LM307N . 39 DS1 4C89N (CMOS) . . . 1 .19
LM309K . 1.25 LM1496N . 69
LM311N. .. 39 MC1648P . 2.95
LM317T. 65 *-M1871N . 1.95
LM318N 99 LM1872N . 1.95
LM319N. 1.29 LM1896NM . 1.49
LM338K . 4.49 Cpooio . ,qc
LM339N . 39 26LS29 . 2 95
LF347N . 1.49 26LS31 . 99
LM348N . 69 26LS32 99
j^350T . 2.95 26LS33 . ' . . 1 .49
^55N . 79 LM2917N (8 pin) . 1.79
LM360N . 1.95 MC3471P . 99
LM361N . 1.49 MC3479P . 3.95
LM380N-8 . 99 MC3486P . 1 19
LM386N-3 . 89 MC3487P . 99
LM387N . 1.09 LM3900N . 49
LM393N . 39 LM3905N . 1.19
LM399H . 3.49 LM3909N . 89
1-F411CN . 79 LM3914N . 1.79
TL497ACN . 1.49 LM3916N . 1.49
NE540H (C540H) . 99 NE5532 . 69
NE555V . 29 NE5534 . 69
XRI-555 . 59 7805K (LM340K-5) . 1.29
LM556N . 45 7812K (LM340K-12) . 1.29
NE558N . 79 7815K (LM340K-15) . 1.29
LM565N . 89 7805T (LM340T-5) . 45
LM567V 75 781 2T (LM340T-12) . 45
NE592N . 75 7815T (LM340T-15) . 45
LM741CN . 29 7905K (LM320K-5) . 1.35
LM747CN . 49 7905T (LM320T-5) . 49
MC1350P . 89 75472 49
MC1377P . 2.29 75477. ........ i!! ! '. 89
MC1398P . . 4.95 MC145106P . 1.95
LM1414N . 99 MC145406P 2 95
PARTIAL LISTING • OVER 4000 COMPONENTS AND ACCESSORIES IN STOCK! • CALL FOR QUANTITY DISCOUNTS
RAM'S SUBJECT TO FREQUENT PRICE CHANGES
320 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 116 on Reader Service Card
MEMBER
MEMBER
Worldwide • Since 1974
• QUALITY COMPONENTS • COMPETITIVE PRICING
• PROMPT DELIVERY
niocrr I MICROCOMPUTER
marketing council
MARKETING ASSOCIATION I'.fyOm.'..'
AMI 80386
Motherboards
Jameco IBM
PC/XT/ AT
Compatible
Computer
Cases
JE1019
Pictured
Seagate 20,30
40 and 60MB
Half Height
Hard Disk
Drives
ST22SXT (Pictured)
JE1081
COMPUTER PRODUCTS
Jameco IBM PC/XT BMHz Tbrbo
Compatible Kit With 256K RAM
COMPUTER PERIPHERALS
Jameco IBM AT Compatible 16MHz
80286 NEAT Motherboard
• Expandable to 8MB
RAM (Zero-K included)
• 8/12 or 8/16MHz
switchable • Supports
all NEAT functions including
shadow RAM, EMS 4.0, RAM
re-mapping and selectable
wait states • 80287-10
Coprocessor capability
• Norton SI rating of 15.6
• AMI BIOS ROMs included
• One-year warranty
JE3010 8/12/16MHZ NEAT (AT) . . $469.95
• Free! QAPLUS Diagnostic
Software Included! Bui/# v
• Free! PC Write Word Proces- WjK 0\^n
sing Software Included!
• 256K RAM Included,
Expandable to 640K ^ ;
• 4. 77 or 8MHz Switchable p[
• AMI BIOS ROM Included >■■■->-«>-«-«■» .
• Save $128.06 /If
Part No. _ Description _ price
JE1001 4.77/8MHz Turbo Motherboard . $89.95
(Zero-K RAM - includes AMI BIOS ROM)
JE1010 Flip-Top Case . 34.95
JE1015 XT/AT Compatible Keyboard . 59.95
JE1020 5.25" DSDD Disk Drive (Black Bezel) . 89.95
JE1030 1 50 Watt Power Supply . 59.95
JE1040 360K Floppy Controller . 29.95
JE1050 Mono/Graphics Card with Printer Port . 59.95
AMBER 12" Monochrome Amber Monitor . 99.95
41256-150 256K RAM (9 chips) . . . 103.41
Save $128.06 Regular List $628.01
JE3002 IBM Compatible PC/XT 8MHz Turbo Kit. . . . $499.95
— Additional Motherboards —
JE1001 4.77/SMHz (PC/XT) . $89.95
JE1 002 4.77/1 0MHz (PC/XT) . $1 09.95
JE3005 8/12MHz (AT) . $329.95
IBM COMPATIBLE DISPLAY MONITORS _
AMBER 12" Amber Monochrome . . . $99.95
CTX2410 14" RGB Color . $279.95 It
1 4" EGA Color - EGA/CGA Compatible, 720 x
350 Max. Resolution (PC/XT/ AT)
TM5154 . $399.95
14" EGA Monitor and EGA Card - EGA compatible, 720 x 350 Max.
Resolution — displays up to 16 colors (PC/XT/AT)
JE1059 SAVE $40.00 . $519.95
TM5155 14" Multiscan Color . $499.95
TEST EQUIPMENT
JAMECO IBM PC/XT/ AT COMPATIBLE CARDS
40MB Tape Back-Up for ibm pc/xt/at
DJ10 40MB Back-Up and Tape . . . $349.95
TB40 40MB Tape Cartridge . $24.95
JAMECO SOLDERLESS
BREADBOARD SOCKETS
3.5" PC/XT/AT Compatible Disk Drives
3.5" 720KB (Mounting Frame Included)
352KU (PC/XT/AT) . $109.95
3.5" 1.44MB (Mounting Frame Included)
356KU (PC/XT/AT) . . $129.95
JE1060
JE1061
JE1062
JE1065
Multifunction, I/O and Expansion Cards
. I/O Card with Serial, Game, Parallel Printer
) Port and Real Time Clock (PC/XT) . $59.95
1 RS232 Serial Half Card (PC/XT) . $29.95
l RS232 Serial Half Card (AT) . $34.95
5 I/O Card w/Serial, Game & Parallel Printer Port (AT). . . $59.95
2MB of expanded or extended memory
(zero-K on-board) (AT) .
$119.95
3MB of expanded or extended memory, parallel printer
port, serial port and game port
JE1082 (zero-K on-board) (AT) . $169.95
Floppy and Hard Disk Controller Cards
JE1041
20/40MB Hard Disk Controller Card (PC/XT). . . .
. . . $79.95
JE1043
360K/720K/1.2MB/1.44MB Floppy Disk Cont. (PC/XT/AT) $49.95
JE1044
360K Floppy/Hard Disk Controller Card (PC/XT). .
.. $129.95
JE1045
360K/720K/1.2MB/1 ,44MB Floppy/Hard Disk
Controller Card (AT) .
. . $149.95
Part
No.
Dim.
L" x W
Contact
Points
JE20
6tox %
200
JE21
3V. x 2to
400
JE22
6to x 1%
630
JE23
6 tox2to
830
JE24
6 to x 3 to
1,360
JE25
6to x 4 Vi
1,660
JE26
6% x 5^
2,390
JE27
7V. x 7to
3,220
DATA BOOKS
400041 NSC Unear Data Book-Vol. I (88) . $1 4.95
400042 NSC Unear Data Book-Vol. II (88). . . . S 9.95
400043 NSC Unoar Data Book-Vol. Ill (88) _ $ 9.95
210830 Intel Memory Handbook (88) . $17.95
230843 Intel Microsystem Hndbk. Set (88) _ $24.95
• Expandable to 2MB (Zero-K incl.) of 32-bit RAM
with expansion board (included) • Expand an addi¬
tional 8MB using the JE3030 (below. Zero-K incl.)
• XT footprint- AT compatible • 80387-16/20 ca¬
pability Built-in set-up and diagnostics* Includes
AMI BIOS ROMs • One-year warranty
JE3020 1 6MHz 80386 (AT) ... $1199.95
JE3025 20MHz 80386 (AT) . . . $1 499.95
JE3030 8MB (Zero-K) Daughterboard . . . $249.95
Metex M4650:
• Handheld, high accuracy
• 4to Digit LCD
• Manual ranging with Overload
Protection
• Audible continuity tester
• Tests: AC/DC Voltage,
Resistance. Continuity
Capacitance, Frequency
• One Year Warranty
• Size: 7"Lx3.5“Wx 1.5"H
M4650 _ $99.95
QC1478 14" VGA Monitor.
. $449.95
- QC1478 VGA Monitor and Orchid
. $649.95
Datatronics
2400/1200/300 Modems
14” VGA Monitor and VGA Card
VGA Card (PC/XT/AT)
JE2055 SAVE $70.00 .
$ 99.95
$ 69.95
$129.95
$ 99.95
$169.95
JE1010
JE1011
JE1014
JE1017
JE1018
JE1019
. $224.95
. $269.95
. $339.95
. $249.95
. $299.95
. $389.95
. $379.95
. $419.95
. $489.95
. $469.95
. $449.95
. $499.95
. $589.95
NEW, Pocket Version!
• Hayes command compat¬
ible • Bell 103/212A com¬
patible* Auto-dial/auto-
answer • FCC approved
1-year warranty • Includes
MaxiMite Communication
Software (except 1 200P)
1 200P 1200/300 Baud Pocket Modem .
1200H 1200/300 Baud Internal Modem. . . .
2400H 2400/1200/300 Internal Modem _
1 200C 1 200/300 Baud External Modem _
2400C 2400/1200/300 External Modem . . .
Standard PC/XT Flip-Top Case. . . .
Standard PC/XT Slide Case .
Baby XT Turbo Rip- Top Case .
Baby AT Flip-Top Case .
Baby AT Slide Case . $69.95
Baby AT Rip-Top Case .
$34.95
$39.95
$69.95
$54.95
$59.95
$69.95
ST225
ST225XT
ST225AT
ST238
ST238XT
ST238AT
ST251
ST251XT
ST251AT
ST251-1
ST277
ST277XT
ST277AT
20MB Drive only (PC/XT/AT). . . .
20MB w/Con trailer (PC/XT). . . .
20MB w/Controller (AT) .
30MB Drive only (PC/XT/AT). . . .
30MB w/Controller (PC/XT). . . .
30MB w/Controller (AT) .
40MB Drive only (PC/XT/AT). . . .
40MB w/Cont. Card (PC/XT) _
40MB w/Controller Card (AT). . .
40MB Fast 28ms (Drive only). . .
60MB Drive only (PC/XT/AT). . . .
60MB w/Controller (PC/XT). . . .
60MB w/Controller Card (AT). . .
U.S. Funds Only
Shipping: Add 5% plus $1.50 Insurance
(May vary according to weight)
California Residents:
Add 6%, 6V2% or 7%
Sales Tax
2/89
$20 Minimum Order
IBM is a registered trademark ol International Business Machines
Data Sheets - 500 each
Prices Subject to Change
Send $2.00 Postage for a
FREE 1989 CATALOG
FAX Numbers: 415-592-2503
or 415-595-2664
„ . _ , _ ... . *„„„ Telex: 176043
1355 Shoreway Road, Belmont, California 94002
24 HOUR ORDER HOTLINE (415) 592-8097 • The Following Phone Lines Are Available From 7AM-5PM P.S.T.:
Customer Service (415) 592-8121 • Technical Assistance (415) 592-9990 • Credit Department (415) 592-9983 • All Other Inquiries (415) 592-7108
MasterCard
c 1989 Jameco Electronics
Circle 116 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 321
Fix common problems fast!
You don’t need to be an expert
to diagnose and correct
problems involving PC setup.
All you need is HELPME™
software! More than 300 tests.
On-screen help for under¬
standing and correcting iden¬
tified problems. Quick
identification of system con¬
figuration and compatibility.
$99 plus shipping and han¬
dling. MC and VISA accepted.
California Software Products,
Inc., 525 N. Cabrillo Park Drive,
Santa Ana, CA 92701
(714) 973-0440.
The $595 Solution to 8051
Product Development
The PDK51 is a powerful and economical
chqice for the development of 8051-based
systems. The PDK51 is used with an IBM-PC or
equivalent and includes:
• SIBEC-II 8052 Basic Microcontroller
• SXA51 Cross Assembler
• ROM-Based Monitor/Debugger
• PROM Programmer
• Power Supplies
• Documentation, Tutorial and More
Call Now! (603) 469-3232
rTH Binary Technology, Inc.
Main St.. P.O. Box 67. Meriden, NH 03770
HARD DRIVE SALE
SEAGATE
ST- 225 . $ 255.00
with controller and cable
ST- 238 . $ 265.00
with controller and cable
ST- 251 . $ 325.00
ST- 251-1 . $ 420.00
ST- 125 . $ 289.00
with controller and cable
ST- 138 . $ 359.00
with controller and cable
A.N. Wholesale & Retail, Inc.
1320 South Dixie Hwy. Suite 256
Miami, Fla 33146
Phone: (305) 284-0827
Fax: (305) 284-0831
Circle 47 on Reader Service Card
(DEALERS: 48)
Circle 27 on Reader Service Card
~i
Sure
iVs insured?
SAFEWARE® Insurance provides full
replacement of hardware, media and
purchased software. As little as $39/yr. covers:
• Fire • Theft • Power Surges
• Earthquake • Water Damage • Auto Accident
For information or immediate coverage call:
1-800-848-3469
In Ohio call 1-614-262-0559
SAFEWARE. The Insurance Agency Inc.
Circle 202 on Reader Service Card
Terminal Emulation
TEK 4105 EM4105 $349
• Tektronix 4105
• Tektronix 4010
• VT220. VT102 Mf
• Picture files
• VGA and EGA support
• High resolution hardcopy
VT220 EM220S769
• VT220, VT102 emulation
• File transfer
• 132 column modes
• Color support
• Hot key
■ ■ Diversified Computer Systems, Inc.
3775 Iris Avenue, Suite IB
Boulder. CO8G301 (303)447-9251
FAX: 303-447-1406
Trademarks VT102. S/T220 DEC. Tektronix - Tektromcs Inc.
HARD DISK CONTROLLERS
ADAPTEC
PC/XT Controller ST506/412 . $45
2070 PC/XT to 506/412 RLL . $69
2071 PC/XT to ST506 RLL (1 drive) . $59
2072 PC/XT RLL . $79
2370 PC/XT to ST506 RLL . $99
3530 SCSI to Tape CMC 36 . $78
4000 SCSI to ST506/412 . $89
4000A SCSI to ST506/412 . $129
4070 SCSI to ST506/412 RLL . $98
4520 SCSI to ESDI . $98
5500 SCSI to ST506/412 . $125
5580 SCSI to SMD . $175
XEBEC
S1410 SASI Controller . $89
S1420 SASI to 5V4” Floppy & Hard Disk Controller $29
Apple II, 11+ , HE Host Adapter . $29
OTHERS
DTC 51 0A SASI controller . $98
DTC 5187 AT to ST506/412, No Floppy . $98
Konan DJ-210 3’/2" SASI to ST506/412
(Xebec 1410 clone) . $89
WD 1002-SHD Xebec Compatible SASI Controller $109
Western Digital 1003WAH . $119
Manuals . $8 each
Cables Available . Ask for Pricing
Hard Drives 20-380 MB . Call
& Computer Surplus Store
( Sycamore Dr. • Milpitas, CA 95035
\ \ T « Phone: 408-434-1060
Fax: 408-434-0931
Twx: 1561447
{ ' j “We Buy and Sell ' ’
Circle 63 on Reader Service Card
is
EPROM PROGRAMMER
• Programs . ■ „
2764 in 8 sec. - , |
• Reads, pro- f? -
grams, copies . ... -
over 475 de¬
vices from 35
mffi's: 2716- i«j .
27513,27011,
68764, bH766,
2804-28256, etc
• Optional microcontroller heads support 874 x and 87C51 series
• Improved design now programs over twice as fast
• Automatically uses the fastest algorithm recommended by the
manufacturer to ensure reliable data storage
• Connects via RS-232 to any computer: PC, XT, AT, PS/2, Mac, etc
• Supports XMODEM/ XMODEM CRC protocols U ASCII file xfers
• Supports Intel, Motorola, hex-space, straight hex and binary files
• Checksums supported • 8 baud rates to 38,400
• 30-day money-back guarantee • Collates 16 U 32-bit data
• Engr support team for fast updates • Cold Textool ZIF IC socket
• One-year warranty (parts and labor) • Same day shipment
• Toll-free technical support • UV erasers from $34.95
• Thousands of satisfied customers attest to the EP-l's great value
• Low price of $349 includes IBM compatible communications pro¬
gram, user's manual and two free firmware update coupons
| CALL TODAY I OR MORE INTO 1-800-225-2102 |
]
Rnn-riJ-Lru
l>Jl microsystems
10681 Haddington #190, Houston, TX 77043
(713) 461-9430 FAX (713) 461-7413
For information interchange, backup and archival storage,
AK Systems offers a 9-track, IBM format-compatible
1 magnetic tape subsystem for the IBM PC. featuring:
■ IBM format 1600/3200 and 800 cpi.
■ Software for PC-DOS, MS-DOS, XENIX.
■ Also for AT&T. DEC, VAX.
VME, S-100, RS-232.
IEEE488 AKSystems
IBEX Mamslreamor 20741 Manila St
Chatswoith, CA 91311
Write, phone or TWX lor informal, on (818) fSMS&OTI
Circle 11 on Reader Service Card
FRAME GRABBERS
PRICE
PRICE
with
without
frame
frame
MODEL
RESOLUTION
grab
grab
HRT 256-4
256 x 256 x 4
495
NA
HRT 256-8
256 x 256 x 8
795
NA
HRT 512-8
512 x 512 x 8
995
NA
HRT 512-24
512 x 512x24
1995
1495
- CALL FOR DIFFERENT MODELS
• IBM PC/XT/AT COMPATIBLE
• DIGITALIZE IN REAL TIME
- COMPOSITE VIDEO IN
- 24 BIT RGB OUT except model HRT 256-4
16 level gray scale out
- SOFTWARE LIBRARY OF IMAGE ANALYSIS ROUTINES
- FREE SOFTWARE UPGRADES TO REGISTERED OWNERS
- FULL CREDIT ON UPGRADE PURCHASE IN FIRST YEAR
RETURN OLD BOARD AND JUST PAY DIFFERENCE
INPUT DEVICES (optional)
Microsoft Mouse (bus or serial) . $99
Bit Pad Plus by Summagraphics . $359
HIGH RES TECHNOLOGIES
U n "T P.0. BOX 76
f| fi # LEWISTON, N.Y. 14092
PHONE 416-497-6493
FAX 416-497-1988
Circle 78 on Reader Service Card
Circle 40 on Reader Service Card
Circle 105 on Reader Service Card
Compu$ave QQ
m
1-800-877-8855
International Orders are Welcome!
BOARDS
Adv. Dig. Slave . 565 Orchid Tiny Turbo 286 259
AST 5251-1 IE . 545 Panasonic Fax . 649
AST Adv. Prem . 309 Paradise VGA+ . 269
ATI VGA Wonder ... CALL Paradise VGA Pro ... 395
BOCA RAM AT . 1 39 Sigma VGA H . 238
Genoa VGA HiRes ..349 STB VGA EM 51 2K ...358
Intel Above Board . Call Video 7 V RAM . 468
Orchid Designer . 325 Video 7 Fastwrite . 345
Adaptec, Artist, Hercules, Metheus, Number 9 .... CALL
Quadram, Talltree, West. Digita, A/e rticom, VMI .CALL
DISK DRIVES
CDC 1 50 Mb . 1,399 Plus Hardcard 40 . 638
Bernouli II 20 Mb . 799 Seagate 20Mb Kit . 262
Miniscribe 3053 . 429 Seagate 30M bKit . 275
Miniscribe 6085 . 549 Seagate ST251-1 . 369
Moutain TD 4440 . 365 Toshiba 720 K, 3.5" Kit ... 84
Plus Hardcard 20 ...498 WORM Drives . CALL
AST, Archive, Alloy, Genoa, Micropolis . CALL
Maynard, Maxtor, Teac.Tecmar . CALL
SOFTWARE
DBase III Plus & IV . CALL Paradox 2.0 . 41 2
Enable 2.0 . 385 Project 4.0 . 31 0
Foxbase Plus . 1 94 Q & A 3.0 . 1 90
Framework III . 419 Quattro . 138
Harvard Graph 2.1 .... 299 R:Base for OS2 . 545
Lotus 123 . 279 Sprint . 125
Microsoft Excel-PC ....289 Symphony . 408
Microsoft Works . 95 Top for DOS . CALL
Microsoft Word 4.0 . 209 Ventura Publisher . 489
Multimate Advan. II . 252 WordPerfect 5.0 . 21 7
COMPUTERS
Acer 1100 B4 .
...3095 Toshiba 1000 .
....798
Acer 20 Mhz .
..CALL Toshiba T1200F .
..1445
AST Model 80 .
...1465 Toshiba T1200HB ...
..2465
AST Model 300 .
...2777 Toshiba 3100/20 .
.2695
AST Model 340 .
..3995 Toshiba 3200 .
..3750
AST 3320 .
...6935 Toshiba 5100 .
.4899
Intel 25 Mhz .
..3899 Toshiba 5200 .
CALL
NEC 386:2 Mb .
..2995 Wyse 2108 .
,...956
NEC EL II .
...1465 Wyse 21 12 .
,.1375
NEC Powermate ..
.CALL Wyse 2200 .
,.1345
Packard Bell 12 Mhz
.1249 Wyse 3216 .
..2125
Samsung 20 Mhz ....
... 2845 Unisys 386 .
,.2695
Samsung S500 AT
...1029 Zenith Supersport .
.1599
Televideo 386 2Mb .
...2565 Zenith Supersport 286 3395
Mitsubishi MP286: 12 Mhz / 40 Mb Drive .
,1799
Mitsubishi MP286 Laptop : 20 Mb .
.2298
Sperry PC IT : 51 2kb / 44Mb HD / Keyboard .
..2795
Altos, ITT, Sharp & Other Models .
CALL
TERMINALS
Adds 1010 .
. 299 Televideo 965 .
....412
Altos V .
. 485 Wyse 30 .
...279
IBM 3151 .
. 385 Wyse 50 .
....355
Kimtron KT-70 PC ...
. 359 Wyse 60 .
...392
Link MC-5 .
....409 Wyse 85G .
Televideo 955 .
. 365 Wyse 99GT .
Visual, CIE, Link, Qume, Falco & Other Models .
CALL
MICE
Logitec C7 .
. 68 Microsoft w/ paint .
Logitec HiRes .
. 92 Microsoft w/windows
..129
Mouse Systems PS/2 .... 95 Summa Mouse .
PLOTTERS
Calcomp 1023GT...
. 3785 HP 7550 A .
,.2895
Calcomp 1043 GT..
. 5645 HP 7570A .
,.3045
Calcomp 1044GT ..
. 10,245 HP 7595 .
.,7795
Calcomp Colormaster ..3395 loline 3700 .
,.3065
Houston DMP 52 .
. 2298 loline 4000 .
,3995
Houston DMP 41/42
. 2110 JDL 850 GL .
,2799
Houston DMP 56A ,.
. 3850 Roland 885 .
,,895
Houston DMP 61 ...
.1199
Houston DMP 62 ...
. 4095 Roland 990 .
,1250
HP 7475 A .
. 1395 Roland GRX ....
.CALL
Numonics, Taxan, Versatec, JDL, Other Models ..
.CALL
DIGITIZERS
cv
C\J
c
E
cr
CJ
re
O
.... 348 Kurta IS 3 .
.CALL
Calcomp 44 x 60 .
..3745 Kurta IS 8.5x11....
. 245
Calcomp36 x 48 .
.3195 Kurta IS 12 x 12 .
,,309
GTCO 24 x36 .
.1945 Kurta IS 12x17 .
. 535
GTCO 36 x 48 .
.2395 Summa 12 x 12 + ....
. 348!
Hitachi 11x11 .
...439 Summa 12 x 18 .
. 579
MODEMS
ATI 2400 ETC .
..155 Practical 12001 .
. 65
Anchor 2400E .
,.145 Prometheus 2400B/2
,,129
Avatex 1200 Ext .
....95 Prometheus 2400G ...
. 149
Cardinal 2400 Ext ..
.139 Racal-Vadic 2400VP .
CO
CD
CO
Cardinal 2400 Int. ...
.109 USR 2400E .
. 345
Hayes 1200 .
..279 USR Courier 2400 ....
,,299
Hayes 2400 .
,415 USR HST 9600 .
,,649
Migent Pocket .
,109 Ven-tel 2400 PS/2 .
. 275
Multitech 224 EH .
,388 Ven-Tel 18000 .
,,939
Multitech 224 EC .
,305 Zoom 2400 HC .
. 145
Case, Packard Bell, UDS, Other Models .
.CALL
PRINTERS
Alps 324 E . 739 Panasonic 1080iM2 . 165
Alps Allegro 24 . 344 Panasonic 1091iM2 . 1 79
Canon BJ 130 . 719 Panasonic 1124 . CALL
Citizen120D . 145 Panasonic P1592 . 368
Citizen 180D . 159 Star NX-1000 . 169
Citizen MSP 40 . 312 Star NX-1000R Color .299
Fujitsu DL3400 . 525 Star NX-2400 . 318
Okidata ML391 ...649 Toshiba 321SL . 469
Okidata ML 393 ..989 Toshiba 341SL . 629
NEC P2200 . 335 Toshiba P351SX . 949
NEC P5200 . 506 Qume Script 10 . CALL
NEC P5300 . 668 NEC LC 890 . 3165
NEC P9XL . 1038 HP Lazer Jet II . SAVE
Brother, C.ltoh, Data Products, Diconix . CALL
Epson, Genicom, QMS, OTC, Varityper, Tl . CALL
MONITORS
Amdek 1280 _ _ 638 Samsung TTI . 79
Gold Star HL Mono 75 Seiko 1430 . 599
Mitsubishi 1381 A 499 Sigma Laser 19" .... 1765
Mitsubshi 6905TK ...2154 Sony Mutliscan . 675
NEC Multisync II . 575 Tatung Multiscan . 475
NEC Multisync + . 91 5 Wyse 650 VGA . 459
NEC Multisync XL ... 2029 Wyse 700 . 678
NEC Multisync GS .... 1 49 Wyse 7190 . CALL
PGS Ultra Sync . 522 Zenith 1490 . 598
PGS UltraSync 16" ...... 895 Other Models . CALL
SCANNERS
Datacopy Jetreader .... 545 Panasonic 505 . 969
Logitec Scam Man . 191 PGS LS-300+ OCR - 965
AST, HP. Taxan, PC Hand Scanner . Call
Mail Address: 4207 S. 37th Street - Dept B2 - Phoenix. AZ 85040. HOI RS: MON-FRI 7 AM-6 PM. SAT: AM- 2 PM. Prices reflect cash discounts and are subject to change
without notice. We do not guarantee compatibility. DOA's are repaired or replaced, please call for a RMA. Major credit cards and selected PO’s are accepted.
INTERNATIONAL SALES (602)437-4855 - EAX (602)437-9685 - CUSTOMER SERVICE (602)437-4856.
Circle 1 73 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS: 1 74)
FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 323
Vt vv1
VV W.
" '• Tna
at AS*T V*
TrippLite® Voltage Regulator
Line Conditioners
LS-600 ia,-1ZUU LC- 1800
TrippLite® Line Stabilizer/Conditioners automatically
adjust varying input voltage to provide full voltage support
during a low voltage condition while suppressing spikes and
line noise.
I
Cable Assemblies
DB-25 - 25 Line Cables
Male-Male
Price Stock # Length Price
6.95 25MM-6 6 ft. $ 6.95
7.95 25MM-10 10 ft. 7.95
1.95 25MM-25 25 ft. 17.95
7.95 25MM-50 50 ft. 33.95
2.95 25MM-100 100 ft. 62.95
DB-25 - 25 Line Cables
Male-Female
Length Price
6 ft. $ 6.95
10 ft. 7.95
25 ft. 17.95
50 ft. 33.95
• alloy,
.easily, o ther
,are^Kt
,eS*i*chb0xes
lecteSalea c°ntactsa™d
1 POPULAR CABLES
Stock# Description
MEC-6 Monitor Ext.
KEC-6 Keyboard Ext.
ACPC-03 Power Adapter
ATM-6 AT Modem Cable
ca^ Other cables available
Price
$5.95 Stock#
3.95 25MF-6
4qr 25MF-10
'll 25MF-25
5 95 25MF-50
_ 25MF-100
fABis? TWo^'O" '
/ AS 2s.| Three°n"'on
/ab||6s &p$Z°n
fzt
fm Tst--
1*036-4 T^ree^!'0n
fAB%%5
“ Your Electronics Supply House”
TERMS: Minimum order $10.00. We accept Mastercard. Visa, and American
Express at no additional charge. For C.O.D. orders, add $2.20. For orders
under $100.00, add $3.00 handling and actual UPS shipping charges. For
orders over $100.00, we pay handling charge— you pay actual UPS shipping
charges plus insurance. Purchase orders accepted from approved accounts.
All returns require an RMA# and are subject to a restocking fee. Texas resi¬
dents add 7.5% sales tax. Prices subject to change and we are not responsi- ,
Lble for typographical errors. I
Store Hours: 8:00-6:00 M-F, 10:00-2:00 SAT CST
10731 Gulfdale, San Antonio, Texas 78216
324 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 13 on Reader Service Card
RS-232C INTERFACE & MONITORING
EQUIPMENT CATALOG
CONTECH
Circle 77 on Reader Service Card
FREE CATALOG
DYNAMIC RAMS
SIMM 80/100
1MBIT 100ns
5'l4256ioons
41464
41256 120ns
I S 41256 isons
51258 100ns
J A 4164 150ns
$CALL
$33.00
$37.00
$14.50
$1 1 .95
<njua
$12.25
WRITE Of CALL lor YOUR FREE “
COMPREHENSIVE B & B
ELECTRONICS CATALOG TODAY!
Pages and pages of photographs
and illustrated, descriptive text err
for B&B’s complete line of RS- . Fp
232 converters, RS-422 con- Er
verters, current loop convert- Ir-^FP - ^
ers, adapters, break-out box- jtrrr ;'F ■'
es, data switches, data split- prrr^ - — -
ters, short haul modems, fprrr'""1' — — —
surge protectors, and much,
much more. Most products meet
FCC Part 15J. Your RS-232 needs 0rter
for quality, service and competitive man** „ ,, ***
prices will be more than met by B&B TODAY & SAVE!
ELECTRONICS. Manufacturer to you, no mid¬
dleman! Money-back guarantee! Same-day
shipment! One-year warranty on products!
Technical support is available.
Write For Your FREE Catalog Today!
B&B electronics
MANUFACTURING COMPANY
4002B Baker Road, P.O. Box 1040 • Ottawa, IL 61350
150ns
2-4 box 5-9box 10+box
3*2
SINGLE
DOUBLE
15358 Valley Blvd. City of Industry, CA 91746 Tel :8 18 369-2688
ORDER TOLL FREE (Mon-Fri 8-5 PST)
(800) 892-8889 • (800) 882-8181
outsklo caRomia inside California
CALL FOR CURRENT PRICES & VOLUME DISCOUNTS
Price Shown for cash. MasterCard/Vsa add 3%. Prices are subject lo change.
Minimum order SI 0.00. Shipping & Handling: UPS Ground S5.00, Air J7.00 (f lb.)
ALL MERCHANDISE IS 100% GUARANTEED WITH PROMPT DELIVERY.
Delaware 1-800-451-1849
PO BOX 10247, WILMINGTON. DE. 19850
. Oklahoma 1-800-654-4058
1 P.O. BOX 1674. BETHANY. OK. 73008
mThW Nevada 1-800- 621*6221
PO. BOX 12396, LAS VEGAS. NV. 89112
3362 _ FAX 405-495-4596
Circle 106 on Reader Service Card
Circle 28 on Reader Service Card
n _ n _ n ! not only a
^ ~ g Prin^er buffer !
[)0B J _ THIS IS THK MOST SOPHISTICATED
PRINTER BUFFER - MULTIPLEXOR - SWITCH
5k”
DOUBLE
SIDE
HIGH
DENSITY
PACKAGED 10 PER BOX
2 Boxes 5 Boxes 10 Boxes
WITH TWO SBPARATE INPUTS (SERIAL AND PARALLBL) AND
TWO SBPARATB OUTPUTS (SERIAL AND PARALLBL) CAN BB
USBD LIKB STANDARD BUFFER WITH ANY INPUT TO ANY
OUTPUT BUT ALSO YOU CAN CONNBCT 2 COMPUTBRS TO I
PRINTER. OR I COMPUTBR TO 2 PRINTERS, OR 2 COMPUTERS
AND 2 PRINTERS AND MORB - I COMPUTBR TO 3 PRINTERS
OR 3 COMPUTBRS TO I PRINTER
HIGH CAPACITY - 64 KB TO 2B6 KB AND - 2B6 KB TO I MB
(MODELS A AND B) PAUSE. COPY AND RBSBT FUNCTIONS
SBRIAL PORTS WITH 7 OR 8 BITS WORD LENGTH, I OR 2 STOP
BIT. PARITY. XON/XOFP, DTR. RTS
GANG/SET ,QQi;oo.
(E)EPROM Others from $345*
MULTIPROGRAMMERS
• Model 135 is a SET Programmer, GANG Duplicator,
& UNIVERSAL Device Programmer.
• Programs virtually all 24, 28, & 32-pin (E)PROMs.
• RAM expandable to 2MegaByte.
• Optional support for 40-pin EPROMs, Bipolar PROMs,
40-pin Micros, & (E)PLD/GAL/FPLA’s.
• DATA I/O* protocal compatibility.
• 18-Month WARRANTY & 12-Month FREE Device
Updates.
NIF-ID 1 160 1 135 1 1 20
NIF-2D I42i 13— I38-0
mf'2hd36£ 353354-5
(*) Power mpplr *nd pertlUl ctblaa at* included
ALSO, WB HAVE THB MOST COMPLBTB DATA CONVERTER
UNIT CONVBRTS RS232 SBRIAL TO CENTRONICS PARALLBL
OR VICB VBRSA. JUST BY MOVINO JUMPBRS BAUD RATE AND
PROTOCOL FULLY PROGRAMABLE PROM 180 TO 19200 BAUDS
INCLUDES DTR. RTS, XON/XOPP. PARITY, ale
— Ug serialOparallel
DCU bi-directional converter
Delaware 1-800*451-1849
PO BOX 10247. WILMINGTON. DE 19850
. Oklahoma 1-800-654-4058
I P.O. BOX 1674. BETHANY, OK. 73008
inn ~ Nevada 1-800-621-6221
RO BOX 12396, LAS VEGAS. NV 89112
INTECTRA Ine.-Dept.232
A 2629 TfiRMINAL BLVD
MOUNTAIN VIBW-CA-94043
1415) 967-8818 TX 345545
In Florida: 1-407-994-3520
□ffj * BYTEK Corporation
Mil 506 N.W. 77 Street, Boca Ralon, FL 33487
FAX: (407) 994-3615 Telex: 4998369 BYTEK
inly) ’DATA 1/0 is a registered Trademark of DATA 1/0
FA X #405 • 495 • 45981
maxell
Circle 43 on Reader Service Card
OPTICAL DISKS CALL
Packed 10/ Box
2 Box 5 Box 10 Box
9 TRACK
TAPE SYSTEM
jnSlJ^^^^^^engineers bring years
x A )P f practical real-time experience
io over 600 installations world-wide .
This real time
MULTITASKING KERNEL
simplifies real life
product development
No royalties ■ * Dynamic memory
Full source code included allocalion
C interface ■ * Event Manager
Preemptive scheduler ■ • Semaphore Manager
Intertask messages ■ * Resource Manager
Terminal Handler a * Butter Manager
Mainframe to PC Data Transfer
High Speed Backup
All Software, Complete System
Service and Support, easy
Installation
-ow«ef.«Die Delaware 1-800-451-1849
ih« RO BOX 10247. WILMINGTON. DE. 19850
4] JL b § . . Oklahoma 1-800-654-4058
_ J— P.O. BOX 1674, BETHANY, OK. 73008
( tOl^lyPOnOl/C Nevada T 800- 621-6221
PO. BOX 12396, LAS VEGAS. NV. 89112
TELEX #4933362 FAX#405-495-4598
Minimum order $2009 "No Surcharge on Visa
MasterCard" COD orders add $309. Surface i(
Shipping UPS add $309 per 100 for 3V2”or 5V4.
add $409 per 100 for 8.” U.S. Mai! delivery add
9%. "Prices subject to change without Notice"
AMX 63000 operates on any 68000/10/20 system
ifF KADAK Products Ltd.
206 - 1847 W Broadway
Vancouver. B C Canada V6J 1Y5
Telex 04-55670
Fax (604) 734-8114
Telephone (604) 734-2796 J
call (818) 343-6505 or write to:
Contech Computer Corp.
P.O. Box 153 Tarzana, Calif. 91356
Circle 65 on Reader Service Card
Circle 120 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 325
LA COMPUTER CORPORATION
213-328-9294
INSIDE CALIFORNIA
A California Corporation
800-888-9294
OUTSIDE CALIFORNIA
213-328-1758
FAX
LACC
COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE
LACC
THE VECTOR XT TURBO
THE VECTOR (286-10)
THE VECTOR (386) 6/16 MHz
4.77 to 10 MHz • 256 to 640k
80286 • 640k • Up to 1 Meg • 1 .2 Meg
INTEL 80386 • 1Mb RAM
150 Power Supply • AT Style Keyboard
Floppy AT KB • Floppy and Hard Controller
Expand to 4Mb RAM • 1.2 Meg. Floppy
1 Drive with cont. • AT Case Turbo Switch
200 Watt Power Supply
Par., Ser„ Clock, Calendar
200 Watt Power Supply • AT Keyboard
$429
$899
$2289
with Monochrome with color
$589 $769
with 30 Meg. with 30 Meg.
with Monochrome with color
$1395 $1609
with 40 Meg. with 40 Meg.
with Monochrome with Color
$2699 $2899
BLOW OUT SPECIALS
NEC EFL360
Letter Quality Printer
22 CPS Daisywheel
Demo unit • Original Box
90 Day Warranty
RETAIL $545 ONLY $149
XT Compatible Case
While they last
$24
NEC Multisync 11-569
Monitor
LACC - MonoCard w/par $49
LACC - 1200B Internal Mon.
with Software $56
Zenith 1490 Fiat $569
AST PREMIUM/286
PC MAGAZINE ED’S CHOICE
Model 80 . Call
Model 140 . $2359
Model 120 . 2099
Model 170 . 2699
COMPAQ
Desk Pro 286 • 12 MHz • 40 Meg. . .$2395
Portable II Model 2/4 . 1995/2599
Portable 386 • 40 Meg . 5599
IBM
Prices to Low to List
Model 30 . Call
Model 50 • 20 Meg. w/monitor . $2875
Model 60 • 44 Meg. w/monitor . $3495
Model 80 • 44 Meg . Call
ALL SYSTEMS COME WITH A ONE YEAR WARRANTY
AND OUR 15 DAY MONEY BACK EXCHANGE POLICY
HARDWARE SPECIALS
Segate ST4096 80MB . $589
Segate ST238 30mb w/Controller . 250
Segate ST 225 with Controller (20 Meg. Hard Disk) . 239
Panasonic 1091 i (Model 2) . 169
Samsung EGA . 349
INTEL Inboard 386 . Call
Hayes 1200 B with Software . 259
Amdek Monitor 410 Amber or White . $145
ATASI 40 Meg . 319
NEC Multisync . 549
Arcive 5540 Tape Drive . Call
HP Lazer Jet II . 599
SOFTWARE SPECIALS
Lotus 1 ,2,3 .
. $309
Norton Utilities .
. $48
Micro Soft Word .
. 199
Micro Soft Flight Simulator .
. 29
Word Perfect .
. 195
D Base 3 Plus .
. 375
Word Star Pro Rel .
. 219
Crosstalk MK4 .
. 109
Print Shop .
. 33
Fast Back .
. 89
WE WILL MATCH OR BEAT
ANY ADVERTISED PRICE
HERE ARE SOME OF THE LOW PRICES YOU’LL FIND AT OUR STORE
MODEMS
EVEREX 12001 (W) S.W . $77
24001 (W) S.W . 169
HAYES 1200 EX . 279
1200 B Intorc . 269
2400 EX . 399
24001 . 409
Irco mm — 2400 Ext . Call
US ROBOTICS 24001 $229
12001 . 99
VOLKSMODEM 12001 . $119
1200X . 119
FLOPPY DRIVES
TEAC 55BV2 Ht. 360 DS/DD . $79
1.2 Meg. Va Ht . 99
REMAX % Ht. for IBM . 39
TANDON 100-2 DS/DD 89
CHINON 720K 3Vz PC 89
IBM % Ht . 89
GRAPHIC BOARDS
HERCULES Monographics Card . $1K)
Cotorgraphics Card . 179
HERCULES Monochrome w/S.W. Par. Port 59
COMPATIBLE Color Par. Port . 59
EVEREX EGA . 000
0KIDATA
182 Plus . 229
292/293/294 Plus . Call
ML 320/390/393 . Call
PRINTERS
MEMORY CHIPS/MEMORY BOARDS
Call
PANASONIC 10801 (140 CPS 80 Col) $159
10921 (240 CPS 80 Col) 269
1524 (24 PIN 132 Col) Call
1592 (132 Col 180 CPS) . 399
3131 Letter Quality
EPSON L0600(180 CPS) 60 CPS NLQ
LO650-(264 CPS d.m)-
LQ-1050 —
LQ-950 (264 cps d.m)—
LQ-2550 — (324 cps)—
FX800 - (300 cps) 54 cpsln (NLQ)
FX286e-(240 cps) 48 cps (INLQ)
FX-850 (264 cps)
FX1050-
LX800 - $199
MONITORS
%%
8087-2 $144
8087-3 101
80287-6 175
80287-8 . 244
80287-10 299
80387 (16 MHz) 469
Above board— 286A + 512 . . 389
PC64K 209
PS(PQ Multifunction 229
Six Pac Plus with 64K 109
Multi Board Exp. to 2 Meg . 119
64K (9 Chips) 150 NS . Call
256K (9 Chips) 150 NS . Call
HARD DRIVES
SAMSUNG TTL 1252 Rat Screen Mono.
LACC Monochrome .
AMDEK 31 0A .
1280 (Desk Top) .
SONY EGA Multiscan CPD 1302 .
(Requires EGA or Compact Card)
PAKARD BELL TTL Monochrome .
Too Many items to list.
Please call for information.
COMPUTERS
69 SEGATES 20 MB V2 HD (ST225) $265
139 30 MB Vi H (ST238) 299
729 40 MB (ST251) 419
Call 30 Meg. ATSA1 . 329
70 Meg. Miniscnbe Call
69 FAXES
Brother FAX 100 Call
Brother FAX 150 . 999
Sharp- FO 300 FAX 1209
Sharp- FO 420 FAX . 1329
Apple Products Available Give yourself the advantages
Macintosh — Image Writers of a Personal Computer.
Plus More! — Call for current prices! Let us help you start or
la computer corporation
A California Corporation
complete your system.
3701 Inglewood Avenue, Suite 161 • Redondo Beach, CA 90278-1110
P.O.’s accepted from qualified companies, institutions and schools we accept VISA MasterCard Shipping: UPS, US Mail, Fed. Express, Emery, Other • OPEN MONDAY THRU FRIDAY
7 am to 6 pm — SAT. 8 am to 2 pm
326 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 124 on Reader Service Card ( DEALERS : 125)
Circle 29 on Reader Service Card
Mono Sys iBtt* Sf. ♦ tvr'gnc'w' Wed wpo W Evnt
EGA Syi (Bivc Sri . Ewrex EGA um ♦ 14' tvrm EGA |3
Super EGA Sri iBwe Sys ♦ Evwh EGA t*«l * NEC wffanac
S,u«m 1800 10MH; 786 0 w»t 5QK, ?5 IP KB But system
SyStm 1700 17MH; 286 0 w»l I mt| RAM KB But -y3tm
Syslfm 3000 ’.EMM; 386 0 «u! 1 m*g KB. Bast syMtm
System 30000 70MH; 386' 0 and 1 meg KB Bast system
full Line of Emu Products A
PEC 286 36/12/10
Mod* PEC 286710MH; SI2K
Modtf PEC 28&I2VM; S12K
Motel PEC 28616 MM2. SI2K
System 16CGXT 10 MW. 2S6K
System 1600WT 12MM; 256K
New' Paradise VGA Plus 16 M
VGA Monitor (Special)
Circle 212 on Reader Service Card
E(E)PROM , MICRO & MEMORY
CARD PROGRAMMER . $345 - $595
• No personality modules for E(E)Proms & Intel Micros.
• All 24/28/32 pin EProms to 1 MBit (upgradeable to 32MB)
• 8741,-2, -4,-8, -8H,-9,-9H, -51, -C51, -52, -55, 9761. EEPROMS.
• Memory Cards: Seiko/Epson, GI. Flash Eproms. On-board
Programming capability. Easy F/W upgrades. Modular design.
• Stand-alone E(E)Prom & Memory Card Duplication / Verify.
• User friendly menu - driven driver for IBM-PC & Macintosh.
• Autobaud RS232 to any computer. Hex/Binary/1 nlel/Molorola.
• Built-in Eraser/Timer option ($50). Gang-Module ready.
• Direct technical support. Full 1 year warranty.
Call today for datasheets!
RAM, EPROM, real-time clc
timer, 44-pin 4.5” * 6.5 PCB
EXPANSION MODULES: RAM, EPROM, CMOS
RAM/battery, analog I/O, serial I/O,
parallel I/O, counter/timer, IEEE-488,
EPROM programmer, floppy disks,
cassette, breadboard, keyboard/display.
Wintek Corp.
1801 South Slreet
Lafayette, IN 47904
317-742-8428
B&C MICROSYSTEMS INC.
Circle 224 on Reader Service Card Circle 250 on Reader Service Card
355 West Olive Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408)730-55 1 1 FAX: (408)730-2 155 TLX: 984185
‘EXACT TERMINAL EMULATION
AND COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE”
• PRECISE EMULATION OF THE
DEC VT52, VT100, VT102.VT220
• EXPANSION MODULES FOR
OVER 40 EXACT EMULATIONS
• 9 FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOLS.
• EASY TO USE, QUICK TO
INSTALL, AND MUCH MORE
• IBM PC, XT, AT. PS/2
FOR INFORMATION
800/548-9777
SQFTRONICS
303/593-9540
TELEX 450236
355 West Olive Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408)730-55 1 1 FAX: (408)730-2155 TLX: 984 1 85
Circle 198 on Reader Service Card
Circle 30 on Reader Service Card
LOW COST
INTERFACE
CARDS FOR • m
PC/XT/AT SU
PC485D _ $95
[RS 485/422 INTERFACE]
• Meets the EIA RS-485 standard for multipoint bus
transmission and the EIA RS-422A standard.
• Can be configured as COM1 or COM2.
• Line terminators are jumper selectable.
• High speed differential drivers allow fast data transfer over
long cablcs-lover 4,000 ft). Max. Baud rate 56KB/1 15KB.
• Tri-state line drivers permit implementation of LANs.
• Two wire (half duplex) operation. DB9 or phonejack.
• Sample communication software available. ($50)
PC488A _ $145
[IEEE - 488 INTERFACE]
PC488B $345
[IEEE- 488 CARD WITH]
[BUILT-IN BUS ANALYZER]
• GPHASIC package complements IBM, 'Microsoft BASIC
interpreter and compiler to create a programming
environment similar to IIP desktop computers.
• Additional libraries of over 20 high level 488 dedicated
functions for C, Pascal or Fortran available ($50 ca.).
• Powerful menu-driven bus analyzer, which can run in
the foreground or in the background while 488 programs or
commands arc executed, features program stepping, break
points and real time bus data capture (4k circular buffer).
• Instant toggling between foreground and Analyzer screen.
• Dipswitch selectable Base Address, IRQ, DMA.
• Talker/Listener/Controller capability. Based on TMS-991.
• NEC-7210 based version (NI PCII/IIA compatible) - S 445
B&C MICROSYSTEMS INC.
Circle 201 on Reader Service Card
System 1800
Basic System $899
(MADE IN U.S.A.
with quality)
• Into! 80286 CPU
• ; . .
• 678 MH; sekrctabiir 8 Mots
• 512K on 1M rrothoi board
• 195 wall power supply
U07270
• ClocK7C«lon Evere.
HO/FD coni
j • FCC class B approved
1 • 46 Hour factory high temp
dynamic bum-in
• I 2 MEG Teic Dr AT
Keyboard
• Runs Autocad. lolua Xenix.
Novell, all prop Software
• 200 pages or documentation
(written in U S A )
• 80287 CO Processor socket
• 80000 umts netMed urflh
customer report on file
• Made in U S A
- with 1 year warranty
fut Mon ) Special S995
nmj Mon ) JMM
8060 |31mm| Mon) $1700
S 1099
Schwab Computer Center
he Ever*. Store" — Authorized Everex Corp. VAR
3202 El Comino Roal, Santa Clara, CA 95051
408-241 1210 Fax » 408 241 1279
M-F 10-7, SAT 11-4
Prices change without notice
• Includes INSTALLABLE DOS DEVICE DRIVERS
and software support for BASIC.
• Optional language support for C, PASCAL,
FORTRAN and ASSEMBLY - $50
• Selectable base I/O address, IRQ and DMA.
• CONTROLLER / TALKER / LISTENER capability.
• Customer support via dedicated 24 hours B&C Microsy¬
stems BULLETIN BOARD.
• Compatible with most IEEE-488 Software Packages for the
IBM-PC (c.g. ASYSTANT GPIB, Lotus Measure, etc.).
• Hardware compatible with N.I. OPIB-PCIIA.
Circle 205 on Reader Service Card
REAL WORLD I/O
For PC/XT/ATs *
DG24 • 24 line digital I/O; 10 MHz 8255. $95
AD 500 • 8 channel 12-bit (plus sign) integrating A/D: prog,
gains of l, 10 & 100; 7 digital LO lines. $239
AD 100 • Single channel version of AD500; 10 digital I/O
lines. Sme programmable gains. 700 meg input Z. $149
AD 1000 • 8 channel 12-bit A/D, 25 uS; sample & hold; 3 5
MHz timer/counters: 24 digital I/O lines. $295
ADA300 • 8 channel 8-bit 25 uS A/D: single D A sample &
hold; 24 digital 1/0 lines. $239
AD200 • 4 channel 12-bit 125 uS A'D; 3 5 MHz timer
counters; 24 digital I/O lines. $239
DA600 • Fast settling dual bipolar D/A. $179
PD200 • Prototype board w/ address decoder: manual $99
Ml boards include BASIC, Pascal. C, and Forth drivers.
30 day return; l year uarranty Call for " Real World
Interfacing'' application notes.
Real Time Devices, Inc.
P.O. Box 906 State College, PA 16804
(814) 234-8087
MC/V1SA/AMEX Call today for datasheets'.
LOW-LOW-LOW
sm camPAa • 'pi*
=^VERE* AST
AceR
& other
XT/AT Compatibles & 386 Computers
CALL for LOW PRICES
Gov’t, Corporate, Schools, Dealers,
& Export INQUIRIES WELCOME.
5URRH inc.
44862 Osgood Road, FREMONT, CA 94539
PH: (415) 651-5101 FAX: (415) 651-5241
1-800-543-1001
VISA, Master Card accepted, w/sc
D - RAMS
41256-06 . $12.30
41256- 10 . $11.00
41256- 12 . $10.80
41256 - 15 . $9.80
1 mg x 1 - 10 . . . $35.00
1 mg x 1 - 08 . . . $40.00
MATH CO - PROCESSORS
8087 . $98.00
8087 -02 . $140.00
80287-08 .... $220.00
80287- 10 .... $270.00
80387- 16 .... $360.00
80387-20 .... $510.00
80387-25 .... $620.00
SABINA INETRNATIONAL, INC.
657 Brea Canyon Road Suite #4
Walnut. California 91789
(714)594-6336 • FAX (714)595-4008
PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE
Incredibly
Low Prices
1-9 Disks *2” ea
10-19 Disks *2“ ea
20 or more $249 ea
PC Software as low as $2*9
CALL TODAY FOR FREE CATALOG
FOREIGN: 619-436-0130
Thousands of IBM/ Compatible Public Domain and Shareware Programs
Are Available from the Micro Star Library and at Incredibly Low Prices! _
[■■Pi We feature the best and most up-to-date shareware available.
l—i Our software is guaranteed against bugs, defects, viruses, etc.
And We Offer FREE Technical Support For Our Customers
ORDER TODAY on our TOLL FREE PHONE LINES • ORDERS SHIPPED OUT SAME OR NEXT DAY
LOTTO PROPHET (2364) Best
Lotto program we've seen.
CITY DESK (2513) Simple
desktop publisher.
LOTUS MACROS (601) Save
hours of work. (Req. Lotus)
LOTUS SPREADSHEET TEM¬
PLATES (602) Ready-made.
(Requires Lotus 1-2-3)
GOAL-SEEKER V3.5 (624)
Achieve ojectives by chang¬
ing spreadsheet and seeing
result. (Requires Lotus.)
LOTUS TUTORIAL (630) Learn
Lotus (requires Lotus).
HELP DOS (1326) On line
DOS help with menus. In¬
cludes DOS dictionary of
terms and a hints menu.
ARCADE GAMES (106) Has
Kong, 3-D Pacman, Bricks,
Pango. (Requires color.)
BASIC GAMES (107) Pac¬
man. Lunar Lander, Startrek,
Meteor, Breakout, and others.
CARD GAMES (109) Canasta,
hearts, draw poker & bridge.
STRIKER (110) Defender-like
game. "Top Gun” in space.
FLIGHTMARE (112) Futuristic
fighter pilot game. (Requires
color graphics adapter.)
SLEUTH (117) Who done it?
DND (119) Like Dungeon
and Dragons.
ROUND 42 (120) Better than
Space Invaders. 42 levels.
GAMES IN BASIC (124) Land¬
er, biorhythms, desert, Phoe¬
nix, Star Wars, others.
QUEST (152) Role playing
adventure fantasy game.
(Requires CGA.)
SPACE WAR (158) Dogfight in
outer space, using phasers,
photon torpedoes, etc.
BRIDGE PAL (171) Complete
game of contract bridge,
with tutorial.
FENIX (193) Just like the
famous arcade game.
PINBALL GAMES (197) Pin¬
ball. Rain, Twilight Zone,
Wizard, etc.
KID-GAMES (GAM8) Animals
math, clock game, alpha¬
bet etc
CHESS (GAM9) Incredible.
2D and 3D. Many levels. Play
back moves, store games.
PC-WRITE 3.0 (434, 435, 436)
(3 disks) Newest version!
Very popular and complete.
Includes spelling checker.
PC-TYPE+ (421-423) (3 disks)
Excellent. Includes mail
merge, 100,000 word spell¬
ing checker. Interfaces with
PC-File-, PC-StvIe.
PC-PROFESSOR (1401) BASIC
tutorial. Good.
BASIC PROGRAM GENERA¬
TOR (1402) The menu driven
way to write programs.
B-WINDOW (1407) Give win¬
dowing capabilities to your
Basic program.
AS-EASY-AS (505) Great. In¬
cludes screen help menus.
Utilizes function keys. A Lotus
clone that reads Lotus files.
PC-CALC+ (512-514) (3 disks)
Jim Button's famous Lotus clone.
ADULTS ONLY (2901) jK||
Animated. Req.jMfjTl
MAXINE (2902) In-WR »
credible. (CGA) A ^ ”
STRIP POKER (2903) B
Pick opponent* -v
(CGA) « A
BAD-BAD (2904) Ad- Mk
venture game. IV. i /
ASTRO-(BLEEP) (2905) Arcade
game (CGA)
X-RATED COLOR SHOW (2915)
Beautiful girls. (CGA)
X-RATED PRINTSHOP (2909)
Graphics for Printshop.
HOMEBASE (2608, 2612, 2613)
Complete desktop organ¬
izer. Great!
PROFESSIONAL MASTERKEY
(2805) Like Norton's. Retrieve
deleted files. A lifesaver.
BAKER’S DOZEN (2821) 13
utilities from Buftonware.
AUTOMENU (3003) Make PC
menu driven. Incl. passwords.
SCREEN (3006) Save your
monitor from screen burn-in.
DOT MATRIX FONTS (3061-
3062) (2 disks) Print your text
in different fonts. Works with
most printers.
KEYDRAWCAD SYSTEM (1001,
1002, 1065) (3 disks) Popu¬
lar. Also uses mouse. (Re¬
quires color graphics - CGA. )
AMY’S FIRST PRIMER (248)
Children's learning game
that teaches letters, numbers
and keyboard.
FUNNELS AND BUCKETS (201)
A fun way to learn math.
MATHPAK (202) Tutorial with
lessons in higher math.
PC-TOUCH (204) Learn typing.
BASIC TUTORIAL (208) Learn
programming with BASIC.
BEGINNING SPANISH (211)
Tutorial.
SPANISH II (232) Sequel.
BIBLEQ (214) Learn the Bible
with this Q-A tutorial.
FACTS 50 (239) Geography
lessons for U.S. Nice graphics.
CURSOR MODE SCI PG00 IQ 1 ■
SIDEWAYS (1007) Prints text
sideways. Useful for spread-
sheets
SIMCGA/HGCIBM (1027,
1062) (2 disks) Use with Her¬
cules graphics card/ com¬
patibles to run programs
requiring CGA on your mono¬
chrome PC.
IMAGE 3-D (1048) Create
and edit 3-D objects. Move,
scale, rotate and tip image.
FINGERPAINT (1050) Use key¬
board or mouse to draw.
Like MacPaint. (Requires
CGA or EGA.)
DANCAD 3-D (1051, 1052) (2
disks) Create 3-D graphics.
Rotate, magnify, etc. Runs
on CGA, EGA, or Hercules.
Q-MODEM 3.1 (1101, 1102,
1144) (3 disks) Powerful but
egsy to use. Fast.
RBBS VI 6.1 A (1 1 07-1 1 09, 1150)
(4 disks) Multi-user bulletin
board system.
PROCOM 2.42(1112-1113)
(2 disks) Hacker's delight. Re¬
dial capability. Latest version.
MARKET CGA (BUS17) Per¬
forms sophisticated analysis
on stocks, funds, etc. (EGA
version is BUS 16).
(iw so. <di© (Dcotm njn * s ms w_hi •- si ms
COPY PROTECTION I (1219)
Instructions for unprotecting
commercial software.
COPY PROTECTION II (1220)
More software unprotect.
COPY PROTECTION III (1221)
Additional software to unpro.
FLUSHOT (1225) Checks
software for viruses.
BILLPOWER+ (BUS40) Bill cli¬
ents for time and materials,
advances, retainers, etc.
Computes taxes, past due
interest, etc. Has full G/L.
CPA LEDGER (706-708) (3
disks) Complete general
ledger for corporations, part¬
nerships or sole proprietors.
PERSONAL FINANCE MAN¬
AGER (715) Household bud¬
get manager. Keep track of
checking, savings, invest¬
ments.
PAYROLL USA (725-726) Up to
2,000 employees in any state.
dBaselll and Lotus compati¬
ble. Complete p/r system.
EXPRESS CHECK (786) Check
acount with running bal¬
ance, monthly reports, etc.
Prints checks.
FINANCE MANAGER II (774-
775) (2 disks) For personal or
small business financial man¬
agement.
FORM LETTERS (1907) Com¬
monly used form letters and
business applications.
EZ-FORMS (1908) Make forms
to meet different needs.
MANAGER'S PLANNER (1920)
Daily planner. Prints out.
HOME INVENTORY (1966)
Track all your possessions.
BIORHYTHM (1990) Display
the 3 biological cycles: phys¬
ical, emotional, intellectual.
FAMILY HISTORY (2203-2204)
(2 disks) Create files and
genealogical reports.
DR DATA LABEL (2327) Power¬
ful mailing list program. Cus¬
tomize labels to size.
PC-FILE dB (801, 805, 837) (3
disks) Newest version! Rated
better than dBase III + .
PC-GRAPH (802) Create
graphics from PC FILE.
FILE EXPRESS 4.0 (803-804)
Powerful system. Allows 32,000
records. Sorts up to 10 key
fields.
DBASE 111+ ROUTINES (851-
852) (2 disks) Latest utilities
to help you utilize dBase IIH
EGA RISK (GAM11) World
domination in great color.
Includes EGA Asteroids.
PC PRO-GOLF (GAM27-28)
Great graphics. Complete
1 8 hole, 72 par course. (CGA)
PEARL HARBOR (GAM32)
Shoot down Jap Zeros before
they destroy U.S. Fleet. (CGA)
ULTIMA 21 DELUXE (GAM34)
Best Blackjack game around.
Includes Video Poker.
FORD SIMULATOR (GAM37)
Great driving simulation.
(CGA) _
FANTASY (1057) Create flow¬
ing graphic images with
mouse or keyboard. (CGA).
FLOWCHARTING (1078-1079)
Complete system for flow¬
charts, organizational, elec¬
trical, etc., with symbols.
1105 SECOND ST. • ENCINITAS, CA 92024
HOURS: Monday - Saturday 7 AM - 5:00 PM. Pacific Time
TERMS: We accept MasterCard. VISA, Checks (allow 10 days to
clear), Money Orders, and COD (add 54.00).
3’/2" DISKS: 3V?" format add $1/disk.
SHIPPING & HANDLING: $3.50 (Total per order).
MAIL-IN ORDERS: Circle disk numbers. Include name & address.
THE BIBLE (3301-3306) (6
disks) Old Testament, King
James version.
THE BIBLE (3307-3308) (2
disks) New Testament. King
James version.
WORD WORKER (3309-3310)
(2 disks) Bible search pro¬
gram. New Testament, King
James version.
BIBLEMEN (3330) Excellent
Bible quiz program.
DOS TUTORIAL (1301) Teaches
you to use DOS.
STILL RIVER SHELL (1304) Run
DOS commands from a
menu. Makes DOS easy.
BATCH FILE TUTORIAL (1305)
Utilize batch file processing.
MORE DOS TIPS (1318, 1323)
(2 disks) More about DOS.
PIANOMAN 4.0 (301) Turn
your keyboard into a piano.
PC-MUSICIAN (302) Com¬
pose, save, and play music.
328 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 153 on Reader Service Card
Circle 206 on Reader Service Card
EPROM
PLD
MICRO
GANG
SET
9-TRACK TAPE SYSTEMS!
All Items In Stock
100% Guaranteed
MC, VISA, COD Accepted
24 Hour Shipment
Call For Our Monthly Specials
3.5" DS/DD
■ SONY
1.29
■ DATASAFE
1.09
■ TDK DS/HD
3.85
5.25" DS/HD
■ TDK
1.29
■ DATASAFE
.89
5.25" DS/DD
■ MAXELL
.64
■ VERBATIM
.59
■ 3M
.57
■ DATASAFE
.35
Prices based on 200 Disks
Includes Labels, Sleeves & Tabs
Smaller Quantities Available
In NJ 800-426-0247 FAX
201-892-5655 201-892 6186
PRINCETON
\\\ DISKETTE
Even a "small" brownout can wipe
your valuable data clean, voltage
spikes can bum out an entire CPU.
Protect your equipment and data
with a low-cost battery backup
system.
432 Macarthur Or. ■ Brick, NJ 08724
Circle 172 on Reader Service Card Circle 181 on Reader Service Card
K PROMPT DELIVERY!!!
C SAME DAY SHIPPING (USUALLY)
QUANTITY ONE PRICES SHOWN lor DEC. 13. 1988
DYNAMIC RAM
SIMM )
1 Mx9
80 ns $450.00
SIMM
** 1Mx9
85 ns
390.00
SIMM 1
256Kx9
60 ns
150.00
1Mbit
IMxl
100 ns
33.00
41256
256Kx1
60 ns
14.95
41256
256Kx1
100 ns
12.95
51258
*256Kx1
100 ns
13.50
41256
256KX1
120 ns
12.25
41264
+ 64Kx4
120 ns
17.50
EPROM
27C1000 128Kx8 200 ns $29.50
27C512 64Kx8 200 ns 13.95
27256 32Kx8 150 ns 8.15
27128 i6Kx8 250 ns 4.95
STATIC RAM
62256P-10 32Kx8 100 ns $22.95
.6264P-12 8Kx8 120 ns 10.80
SAT OE.UVERY MasterCard^ VISA or UPS CASH COD
included on Factory New, Prime Parts jjPqo
*£****** MICROPROCESSORS UNLIMITED. INC.
RECEIVED BY ^ 24.000 S. Peoria Ave . /Q-j 0\ 9C7./1 Qfil
I*®?** ftSii BEGGS. OK 74421 4^0 1
tr. r-1 510.0 l B | No mjnjmum order. Please noie mat prices are suDject to
cfia-'go Shippmg 4 insurance extra A up to Si tor packing materials Orders received by
9 PM CST can usually be delivered the next morning, via Federal Express Standard
Air (.1 S6.00, or guaranteed next day Priority One (a S10.25!
Circle 152 on Reader Service Card
Circle 1 79 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989
Battery Back-up Power System
— Spike and Surge Protection
450-watt, 120V power system for up to
2 hrs. (at 80 watt) continuous use during a
complete black-out.
$4QQ95
Model BC-450
OUTSIDE OKLAHOMA: NO SALES TAX
OPEN 6 V2 DAYS, 7:30 am-10 pm: SHIP VIA FED-EX ON SAT
Circle 129 on Reader Service Card
(DEALERS: 130 )
PALMERASE
World’s Smallest UV Eraser
$4995
LOGICAL DEVICES, INC.
1201 N’.W. 65th Place, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33309
ONICS
Pkwy., Hauppauge, NY 11788
ASK FOR FREE CATAL0C Money orders, checks
accepted. Please add $15.00 per item shipping and
handling. NYS residents add appropriate sales tax.
OVERLAND DATA IS THE EXPERT when it
comes to connecting your PC to the mainframe
and mini computer world.
• PC/XT/AT/386/PS2/compatibles
• 800, 1600, 3200, 6250 BPI
• Free tutorial on tape systems
• EBCDIC/ASCII conversion
• IBM & ANSI labeled tapes
• DOS. XENIX, UNIX, PICK
• Highest quality customer service
• Stock fuli range of tape drives
• Network backup and More!
Satellite Communication
MICR0SAT II
Expansion Board
$700
• For IBM PC/XT/AT and compatible.
• Satellite data receiver - 9600 baud.
• Satellite bulletin board.
• Satellite video and
audio option - Add $200
PERSONAL SPACE COMMUNICATIONS
707 Johnson Road, Blaine WA 98230
(604)597-6298 TLX 04-508306 FAX (604)597-6214
Circle 131 on Reader Service Card
(DEALERS: 132)
IMMEDIATE
DELIVERY
Overland Data Inc.
5620 Kearny Mesa Rd. • San Diego, CA 92111
Tel: (619) 571-5555 • FAX: (619) 571-0982
PALMERASE rM can erase 20, 24, 28, and
40pin EPROMs in less than 3 minutes! Also,
larger erasers are available to handle EPLDs,
MICROs and other UV erasable devices.
Please call today for more information on an
eraser that’s right for you.
LOGICAL
DEVICES, INC.
1201 N.W. 65th Place, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33309
1 -800-331-7766* in Florida: (305)974-0967
HUSKYT
PC based PROGRAMMER
$599.00*
'modules not included.
From A Name You Can Trust
1-800-331-7766 (305) 974-0967
Telex 383142 Fax (305) 974-8531
Emergency
Power!
Line Stabilizer —
voltage Regulation
and Surge Suppression
1800 watt power output. Isobar9 spike
and noise protection.
Model LC-1800
299'
TOLL FREE Bl£9|3
800-648-2626
(NY State 800-832-1446 Ext. 242)
Circle 251 on Reader Service Card
PROGRAMMERS
PUT ONE UNIT
ON YOUR DESK TODAY!
ULTIMATE PROGRAMMING & TESTING
SOLUTION FOR EPROM, PAL, BIPOLAR,
8748 & 8751 SERIES, IC & MEMORY.
UNIPRO — Only $545 Complete
Optional 4-socket ADAPTOR
for multiple EPROM programming — $99
EPROM PROGRAMMERS —
FROM
(1,4,8,16 Socket gang programmers)
$160
High-speed, dedicated PROGRAMMERS
for PAL, BIPOLAR, 8748 Series, and
8751 Series, and IC & MEMORY
TESTERS are also available.
Ask for PAL DESIGNING S/W
1. PALASM (MMI) 2. PLDesigner (MINC)
3. ORCAD PLD
OEM, DEALER INQUIRY WELCOME
XELTEK
473 SAPENA COURT, UNIT 24
SANTA CLARA, CA 95054
TEL.(408) 727-6995 FAX: (408) 727-6996
ORDER TOLL FREE
1-800-541-1975
VISA, MASTER, AMEX ACCEPTED
MUlTI-CHflNN€l
PS/2 .
. :
COMMUNICATION BOARD
• Four Independent RS-232 Ports
• Flexible Interrupt/ Address
Options
• Discounts Available
• For Models 50, 60, 80
1-800-553-1170
I QUA TECH
INCORPORATED
478 E. Exchange St., Akron, OH 44304
TEL: (216) 434-3154 FAX: (216) 434-1409
TLX: 5101012726
Circle 186 on Reader Service Card
Communications Board
Pljll _ ; | "!•"»'
ii Uft
For IBM PC/XT/AT/PS/2
Dual channel RS-422/RS-485 *
Selectable/shareable interrupts
Differential drivers to 4000 ft.
Immediate delivery
1-800-553-1170
I QUA TECH
1 INCORPORATED
Leaders in Communication Technology
478 E. Exchange St., Akron, OH 44304
(216) 434-3154 TLX: 5101012726
Circle 188 on Reader Service Card
BUY QUALITY
FOR LESS!
MAXELL
5W' DS/DD 59*
3V2" DS/DD 1.15
LIFETIME WARRANTY
Price based on quantity of 300 in bulk
includes Tyvek sleeves and label kits.
800-222-0490
In NJ 201-462-7628
FAX 201-462-5658 _
® 24 Hour Shipment •
MEGASoft
P.O. Box 710, Freehold, NJ 07728
RS-422/232
CURRENT LOOP
DS-225
Single channel async communi¬
cation board for IBM PC/XT/AT
Software selectable to be RS/
422/485, 232 or Current Loop
Selectable Address & Interrupt
1-800-553-1170
I QUA TECH
INCORPORATED
478 E. Exchange St., Akron, OH 44304
(216) 434-3154 TLX: 5101012726
Circle 187 on Reader Service Card
MODELS 50, 60, 80
• DCE/DTE Selectable
• Transfers to 19.2 K baud
• Address Selectable
• Interrupt Selectable
1-800-553-1170
I QUA TECH
INCORPORATED
478 E. Exchange St., Akron, OH 44304
TEL: (216) 434-3154 FAX: (216) 434-1409
TLX: 5101012726
Circle 189 on Reader Service Card
BUY QUALITY
FOB LESS!
DYSAN
5V4" DS/DD 39°
100% CERTIFIED
LIFETIME WARRANTY
Price based on quantity of 250 in bulk
includes Tyvek sleeves and label kits.
800-222-0490
In NJ 201-462-7628
FAX 201-462-5658
• 24 HOUR SHIPMENT •
MEGA Soft
P.O. Box 710, Freehold, NJ 07728
Full service duplication facility
330 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 145 on Reader Service Card
Circle 146 on Reader Service Card
IBM COMPATIBLES REDUCED BY 20% to 40%
CAT™ 8MHZ
BASE SYSTEM
• 256K (Opt. 640K) • 150 Watt Power
Supply • AT Style Keyboard & Case
• 4.77 or 8 MHZ Keyboard Selectable
• FDC
• 8087 Socket • 360K Floppy Drive
• 1 Year Warranty fcf
«39900^
OPTION A
12” Mono Amber Monitor
Graphics Card w/par port
mm ffs
CAT 386 SYSTEM
• 12" Amber Monitor
• 1.2 Meg Floppy Drive
• 1 Meg of Memory
• Parallel. Serial & Clock
• 70 Meg Hard Drive
16MHz s279900
20MHz s2999°°
CAT™ 286-10
BASE SYSTEM
• 512K Exp. to 1 MEG • 200 Watt Power
Supply • AT Style Keyboard
• Western Digital Controller • 1.2 Meg
Floppy • Legal Bios w/manuals • Systems
Documentation • 1 yr war. • Clock/Calc
• 10MHz DTK Motherboard pi
$79900
11.3 NORTONS SL
OPTION B
OPTION C
OPTION A AT
OPTION B AT
640 x 200 Color Monitor
12" Mono Amber Monitor
12" Mono Amber Monitor
640 x 200 Color Monitor
Graphics Card w/par port
Graphics Card w/par port
20 Meg Hard Drive
Graphics Card w/par port
Graphics Card w/par port
$696oo
s788°o
$94900
si096«>0
OPTION C AT
12" Mono Amber Monitor
Graphics Card w/par port
40 Meg Hard Drive
s139900
(800) 654-7762 ★ FOR LOW PRICES & FAST DELIVERY ★ (800) 654-7762
inteT COPROCESSORS
If Your PC
Uses the Intel
Running at . .
Than You
Need Intel
MEADS
Price
8088
5MHz or less
8087
9750
8088 or 8086
8MHz or less
8087-2
143°°
8086
10MHz or less
8087-1
209°°
80286
6-8MHz
80287
159°°
80286
8-12MHZ
80287-8
229°°
80286
10MHz or more
80287-10
259°°
80386
16MHz
80387-16
38750
80386
20MHz
80387-20
54900
80386
25MHz
80387-25
689°°
386SX
16MHz
80387-SX
429°°
MODEMS BY -=SEVERE*^
EV-923 EverCom 12 300/1200 bps Bitcom Software 7400
EV-941 EverCom 24 2400 Baud Int. Bitcom Software 13900
EV-945 External 2400 Baud . 199°°
For error correcting add $10.00
Hayes Compatible Major Manufacturers
1200 Baud Internal w/Software . 59°°
1200 Baud External fully Hayes Compatible 99°°
2400 Baud Internal Vz card w/software 109°°
2400 Baud External Fully Hayes Compatible 129°°
1 Year Warranty
MONITORS BY m
Samsung
1252 12" Amber w/Tilt \ Swivel Base 79°°
1257 12" Amber Flat Screen 720 x 350 99°°
1464 14" Color 640 x 200, 16 colors 239°°
1453 14" EGA 640 x 350. 64 colors/,31 . 369°°
CN4551 EGA 720x480 439°°
IBM CGA/VGA/PGA/EGA Multisync Compatible
VIDEO CARDS
Vega video^seven .
179°°
Everex EGA 640 x 350 W/par. port .
169°°
Everex VGA 640 x 400. 17 VGA Modes .
249°°
Everex PGA 640 x 480. 256/4096 Colors
62900
MEAD Monographics w/par port Hercules comp.
58°°
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58°°
ACCESSORIES OF ALL KINDS
150 Watt Power Supply Direct PC Replacement.
54°°
200 Watt Power Supply Direct AT Replacement .
79°°
Dos 3.2 w/GW Basic .
69°°
Everex Ram Expansion for AT or XT starting at .
59°°
No Slot Clock .
39°°
TAPE BACKUPS BY
t=SEVEREX^
40MB Mini Cartridge, 1.8MB/min. XT
359°°
40MB Mini Cartridge, 3.6MB/min, AT .
359°°
40MB Streaming Cassette, 5MB/min w/cont
589°°
60MB Streaming Cassette, 5MB/min w/cont. .
64900
60MB Streaming 600A, 5MB/min w/Full cont . .
849°°
I 125MB Streaming Cartridge, 5MB/min w/Full cont 1119°°
Excell 60 Model 60/80 .
999°°
Excell 125 Model 60/80
1269°°
External Add 195°°
FLOPPY DRIVES FROM^^ 1
YOUR LOW PRICE LEADER
360K Vz Ht. PC Compatible — Mitsumi .
69°°
1.2 Meg Mitsubishi Black Face .
79°°
720K 3V2" Drive w/5V4" mounting
89°°
1.44 Meg 3V2" Drive w/5V4" mounting .
119°°
360K Tandon TM100-2 Full Ht .
89°°
160K Tandon TM100-1 Full Ht .
39°°
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COMPLETE KITS
ST125 20Meg 40 Mil V2 Ht . 299°°
ST225 20Meg w/cont. & Cables . 269°°
ST238 30Meg w/cont. & Cables 299°°
ST251 40Meg Vz HT 40 Mil w/software 379°°
ST251-1 40Meg. 28 Mil Sec . 469°°
ST277R 60MB 40 Mil V2 Ht . 489°°
ST4026 20Meg Full Ht 40 Mil . 279°°
ST4038 30Meg 40 Mil Full Ht . 309°°
ST4053 40MB 28 Mil Full Ht . 519"
ST4096 80Meg Full HT w/software 649°°
Fastrax Software 49«°
CONTROLLERS BY
WESTERN DIGITAL
WX-1 8 Bit 1/2 Sized for XT . 69°°
WA-2 16 Bit Full Sized Hard/Floppy . 119°°
WD-27X 8 Bit RLL % Size . 79"
WAH 16 Bit Hard Drive Controller . 129°°
RA2 16 Bit RLL Hard/Floppy for AT 159°°
MEAD Floppy Disk Controller for XT 29°°
MEAD 1.2 Meg & 360K Controller for XT . 59®°
Cable Set for Hard Drive Only 5“°
PRINTERS BY
Panasonic w CITIZEN
KXP1080I 144CPS
KXP1091I 192CPS
KXP1092I 240CPS
1592 214CPS 15" .
1595 288CPS 15" .
1524 240CPS 24 pin
199 180D 180CPS 9 Pin 10" 179
229 MSP40 379
379 MSP45 479
499
549 Parallel 6 ft. Cable
649 $14°°
Liquidation ★ Closeouts ★ Discountinued Items ★ Overstocked
OSAVE UP TO 90% OFF RETAIL - All New 90 Day Warranty** i)
LETTER QUALITY PRINTER
DAISYWHEEL PRINTER MANUFACTURED BY C.ITOH
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When our 40 cps letter quality daisywheel
printer from the same manufacturer is only
•ate®
RAM UPGRADES
*299®.?
STANDARD FEATURES
O*
W'
Modules
4164
150 NS .
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41256 100 NS .
12”
256 x 9 80 NS ... .
256 x 9 100 NS..
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149°°
129°°
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120 NS .
3”
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13”
IMeg x 9 120 NS
399°°
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3”
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15”
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429°°
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11”
IMeg x 1 120 NS
37°°
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549°°
41256 120 NS .
11”
IMeg x 1 100 NS .
39°°
IMeg x 8 120NS . .
399°°
• 6 ft. Serial Cable . $ 19°° , 17,
• Bidirectional Tractor . 149°° and 1
• Cut Sheet Feeder . 199°° • Industry com
• Serial to Parallel Converter 99°° control comm;
10 MEG HARD DISK KIT
Includes Controller & Cables ^
• V2 Height • 80 Msec
New/Major Manufacturer ^
Mead 179°°
800-654-7762
SALES: 7 a.m.-6 p.m. PST
702-294-0204
CUSTOMER SERVICE / ORDER STATUS:
9 a.m.-4 p.m. PST
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ItaOemarki are Registered mid Iheu rescecf/ve Co s Prices Subtea to Change
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“RAM not include All are new. 90 Day warranties
All RAM items sublet to price change
All Products 90 Day Warranty unless stated otherwise
• 40 CPS • Accepts Paper to 15 inches • Form
Length and Pitch Set from Conrol Panel
• Industry compatible ribbon, printwheels and
control commands • RS232 Serial Interface
1200 BAUD MODEM
• Hayes Compatible w/software
• Auto Answer / Auto Dial
• Vz Card Internal
List 99°° Mead 54°°
STATIC BUSTER
Attached to the CRT face and keyboard, Static Buster
works just like a sponge, dissipating static at a rated
20,000 volts in less than two seconds.
AT STYLE / XT CASE
• 2 Bay Standard AT Style Case
Keylock Power and Hard Drive LED's
REAL
MICROSOFT
MOUSE
• In Port w/Bus Interface
► Includes Showpartners and Paintbrush
• Full IBM Compatible
1000 Nevada Hwy. • Unit 101 • Boulder City, NV 89005
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SHIPPING: (min 6”) UPS
Circle 142 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 331
A-BUS
REMOTE DATA
ACQUISITION AND
CONTROL
m l though affordable, powerful and easy to use, the A-BUS I/O system until
L I recently had a major limitation: it had to be located close to the controlling
computer. Now two new serial adapters from Alpha Products have
removed this restriction. Any computer with ah RS232 port can control the
A-BUS line of data acquisition and control cards.
Using standard telephone type cable, the A-BUS system can be located up to
500 feet away from the computer. With the addition of a Modem the A-BUS
system can be controlled from anywhere. /4s with all A-BUS cards, the adapters
are easily installed and are programmed using standard commands.
NEW SERIAL
PROCESSOR
HAS BRAIN
\ i /
V
m esides implementing a full A-BUS on a serial port, the low cost SP- 127
mi A-BUS Serial Processor fills a great need in remote data acquisition. It
mi includes a complete BASIC interpreter and can run programs indepen¬
dently of the host computer. This distributed processing relieves the host of
housekeeping chores and low level decision making. The SP-127 can read and
log data at set intervals for later reviewing or recalling at the host's convenience.
The Serial Processor, which communicates with any computer through an RS232
port, includes a complete BASIC interpreter and 32K of memory. Adding a
Modem turns the SP- 127 into a automated remote data and control station.
THEA-BUS
ON NETWORK
a a nique features such as the new "Serial Nodes" greatly expand the
II usefulness of the A-BUS. These inexpensive ($49) devices provide the
%i ability to connect up to 16 complete A-BUS systems to a single serial port
on any computer. The node also functions as a repeater to increase the reach of
the adapter beyond the 500 foot limit
The nodes work in conjunction with the company's SA-129 Serial A-BUS
Adapter. Plant-wide data collection and control will become widespread thanks
to the system's low cost, outstanding capabilities, and ease of use.
HI _ J .
a
ADVANCE IN
MOTION
CONTROL
Seeking new heights in motion control and robotics, Alpha's Smart Quad
Stepper Controller outperforms systems costing 5-10 times more. This
$299 board includes a multitasking microprocessor capable of controlling
4 stepper motors simultaneously at speeds up to 1 000 steps per second. Four
Axis positioning is perfect for robot arms, positioners, pick and place, etc.
Commands are intuitive; plain English words and a forgiving syntax make it easy
to write (and edit) command sequences. Scaling factors allow for meaningful
units of your choice, and 32 bit floating point arithmetic ensures accurate
calculations. The learn" feature involves storing a series of movements so that
even a complex sequence can be repeated easily. Alpha's engineers thoughtfully
included direct drivers for small motors, and a variety of inputs (limit switches,
remote keypad, panic button, etc.).
An SC-149 can be set up quickly and easily, minimizing development time and
allowing more effort to be devoted to the rest of the robotic project.
ALPHA
(203) 656-1806 Darien, CT 06Q20
332 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 12 on Reader Service Card
NEW: REMOTE A-BUSI Use the new Serial (RS-232) Adapter or
Processor to control any A-BUS system. Cards can be up to 500 ft
away using phone type cable, or off premises using a modem. Call or
send for the new A-BUS Catalog which covers all the products.
Classroom to advanced industrial applications.
Be a Wizard in your Lab, Factory, College, Home...
It used to be difficult and costly to do process control, robotics, data
acquisition, monitoring and sensing with your computer. Now the
low-cost A-BUS system makes it easy to do almost any project you
can imagine.
Versatility. A-BUS cards handle most interfacing, from on/off
switching, to reading temperatures, to moving robot arms, to
counting events, to sensing switches...
Adaptability. The A-BUS is modular, allowing expansion well
beyond your needs. It works with almost any computer, or even as a
remote data station with the new serial adapters.
Simplicity. You can start using the A-BUS in minutes. It's
easy to connect, and software is a breeze to write in any language.
Reliability. Careful design and rugged construction make the
A-BUS the first choice in specialized I/O.
An A-BUS system consists of: - An A-BUS adapter plugged
into your computer ■ A cable to connect the adapter to 1 or 2
A-BUS function cards. - The same cable will also fit an A-BUS
Motherboard for expansion to up to 25 cards in any combination.
_ Important _
All A-BUS Systems: ♦ Come assembled and tested ♦ Include detailed manuals with schematics
and programming examples ♦ Can be used with almost any language (BASIC, Pascal. C.
assembler, etc.) using simple "IN" and "OUT" commands (PEEK and POKE on some computers)
♦ Can grow to 25 cards (in any combination) per adapter ♦ Provide jumper selectable addressing
on each card ♦ Require a single low cost unregulated 12V power supply ♦ Are usually shipped
from stock. (Overnight service is available.)
_ About Alpha Products _
Founded in 1976 for the purpose of developing low cost I/O devices for personal computers. Alpha
has grown to serve over 70000 customers in over 60 countries. A-BUS users include many of the
Fortune 500 (IBM, Hewlett-Packard. Tandy, Bell Labs. GM...) as well as most major universities.
A-BUS products are U.S. designed. U.S. built and serviced worldwide.
Overseas distributors: England: CaJdy Science Assoc. Ltd.. Merseyside. 051 342 7033.
Australia: Brumby Technologies Pty. Ltd., NSW. 759 1638. France: Coserm. Rungts. 46 86 64 75
Inputs, Outputs, etc.
Analog Input: 8 analog inputs. 0-5.1V in 20mV steps (8 bits).
0-100V range possible. 7500 conversions/second. AD-142: $142
12 Bit A to D: Analog to digital converter. Input range -4V to
+4V, expandable to 100V. On-board amplifier. Resolution ImV.
Conversion time 130ms. 1 channel. (Expand to 8 channels with the
RE-156 card.) AN-146: $153
Relay Card: 8 individually controlled industrial relays each with
status LED’s (3A at 120VAC contacts. SPST). RE-140: $142
Reed Relay Card: 8 reed relays (20mA at 60VDC, SPST).
Individually controlled and latched, with status LEDs.RE-15«: $109
D/A converter: 4 Channel 8 Bit D/A converter with output
amplifiers and separate adjustable references. DA-147: $149
24 line TTL I/O: Connect 24 input or output signals (TTL 0/5V
levels or switches). Variety of modes. (Uses 8255A) DG-148: $72
Digital Input: 8 optically isolated inputs. Input can be 5 to 100V
voltage levels or switch closures. IN-141 : $65
Digital Output Driver: 8 outputs: 250mA at 12V. Drive relays,
solenoids, stepper motors, lamps, etc. ST-143: $78
Clock with Alarm: Powerful clock/calendar. Battery backup.
Timing to 1/100 sec. Alarm relay. LED and buzzer. CL-144:$98
Touch Tone Decoder: Each tone is converted into a number
which is stored on the board. PH-145: $87
A-BUS Prototyping card: 4x4.5’ card. Will accept up to io
I.C.S. With power & ground bus. PR-152: $16
Counter Timer: Three 16 bit counters/timers. Use seperately or
cascade for long (48 bit) counts. CT-150: $1 32
Call our application engineers to discuss you project
Motion Control
Smart Quad Stepper Controller: The world's finest
On board microprocessor controls four motors simultaneously.
Uses simple English commands like "MOVE ARM 102 (INCHES)
LEFT". For each axis, you control coordinates (absolute or rela¬
tive). ramping, speed, units, scale factors, etc. Many inputs for limit
switches, etc. On the fly reporting of speed, position... Built in
drivers for small motors (such as MO-103 or 105). SC-149: $299
Options: ► 5 amp/phase power booster for 1 motor: PD- 123: $49
► Remote "teach" keypad for direct motor control: RC-1 21 : $54
Adapter in the foreground plugs into PC.XT.AT type slot
Stepper Driver Kit: For experimenting with stepper motors.
Includes 2 MO-103 motors and a ST-143 dual driver PA-181: $99
Stepper Motors: (4 phase, unipolar)
MO-103: 21/4" dia V<" shaft. 7.5°/step. 12V, 5 oz-in torque. $15
UO-104: 2" dia, Vi" shaft. 1 .87step. 5V. 60 oz-in torque. 545
MO-105: 1 T square. 2’ shaft. 3.75°/step. 12V. 6 oz-in. $15
A-BUS Adapters
► Can address 64 ports and control up to 25 A-BUS cards.
► Require one cable. Motherboard required for more than 2 cards.
A-BUS Parallel Adapters for:
IBM PC/XT/AT & compatibles. u**one*crt « long AR-133: $69
Apple IIJI+, lie Plug* Into any** Intide. AR-134: $52
Commodore 64,1 28 Plug* Mo Expanse* Port on bade AR-139: $48
TRS-80 Model 102200 u*e* 40 pm -System bu»*. AR-136: $76
Model 100 (Tandy portable)^ kite socket on boec^ AR-135: $75
TRS-80 Model 3.4, 4D Y-CaWe available if 50 pintail used AR-132: $54
TRS-80 Model I Ploo* ink) 40 pin expansion bus. AR-131: $39
Tandy Color Computers nt* rom dot MuWpak or Y-caWe AR-138: $49
A-BUS Cable: Necessary to connect any parallel adapter to
one A-BUS card or to first motherboard. 50 pin. 3 ft. CA-163: $24
Special Cable for two A-BUS cards CA-162: $34
Serial Adapter: Connect A-BUS systems to any RS-232 port
Allows up to 500 ft from computer to A-BUS. SA-129: $149
Serial Node: To connect additional SA-129/A-BUS systems to
a single RS232 serial port (max 16 nodes). SN-128: $49
Serial Processor: same as above plus built in BASIC for off¬
line monitoring, logging, decision making, etc. SP-1 27: $1 89
Use SA-129 or SP-1 27 with modems for remote data acquisition.
Motherboard: Holds up to 5 A-BUS cards in sturdy aluminum
frame with card guides. A sixth connector allows (using cables CA-
161: $12) additional Motherboards to be added. MB-120: $108
Power Supply: Power pack for up to 4 cards. PS-126: $12
Complete Catalog Available
For Orders and Info call (203) 656-1806
Weekdays from 9 to 5 EST or FAX 203 656-0756
Ordering Information We accept Visa, Mastercard. Checks, and M.O. C.O.D. is $4 extra.
Purchase orders are subject to credit approval. CT residents add 7.5% sales tax.
Shipping: $4 per order (usually UPS ground). UPS 2nd Day Air: $4 extra Next Day service
available. Canada: $6 per order (Airmail). Outside US and Canada: Add 1 0% of order total.
Circle 12 on Reader Service Card
a S‘gma industries Company
ALPHA
242- B West Avenue, Darien, CT 06820
FEBRUARY 1989 • BYTE 333
jfe Presto!
" A Link to
_ Mainframe
k» Graphics
DATA
SYSTEMS
200/100 MHz LOGIC ANALYZER for PC
Circle 66 on Reader Service Card Circle 1 71 on Reader Service Card
Circle 94 on Reader Service Card
24 Channel mode with 4K/channcl • 6 Channel mode with 16K/channcI
Internal Rates from 200MHz(LA27200) or 100MHz(LA271OO) to 250 Hz
External Clock from DC to 50 MHz • 16 Level Triggering Sequence
Threshold Voltage Level at TTL, ECL, or -8V to +14V variable • Data
isplay as Timing Diagram or State List • Savc/Load Data and Setup Info.
(201)994-6669
Link Computer Graphics. Inc.
rc^rrl 4 Sparrow Dr., Livingston, NJ 07039 IvJZxL/
ia^EDLIEl
rop-up icon menus -w»-n ^ly^.
Variable size symbols
Hercules mono, CGA, EGA
HP-GL, DM/PL, SwectP Plotters
Automatic PANning to scan drawing quickly
IBM/EPSON, NEC, OKIDATA, HP LaserJet
Daytron Electronics Inc.
610 S. sherman #104, Richardson, Tx 75081
Add s&h ($4 USA, S15 foreign), Texas residents add sal
for technical information call 214-660*2137
Order Today! 1-800-882-5822
Money-hack guarantee
Turn-key
PC Systems ;
Handbook
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Over 1000 Hard-to-find J ^
Hardware and Software f
Items of Special *■
Interest to Technical
PC Users: AvaNab
• RS 232/IEEE 488 Networks
• Stepping & Servo
Motor Controls
• Ruggedizod PCs
• Rack Mtg 80286 & 80386
• Laboratory Automation
• 1 MHZ AD
• Digital Scopes to 200 MHZ
• High Speed Bus Adapters
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• And Much More
A How-to-Handbook that
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Toll Free Hotline for application
assistance and convenient one
stop shopping at competitive
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Guaranteed.
4Uo- / OD-0 I O 1 101 P.O.Box 9565, New Haven. CT 06536
(9D0 AM to 5:00 PM E.S.T) Fax: 203-786-5023 Telex: 9102501037
334 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 68 on Reader Service Card
...the PS/2 leaders.
PS/2 and Micro Channel are trademarks of IBM Coro.
DV-Or^Bp
GRAYSCALE
FRAME GRABRER
Composite video in/out
256 x 240 resolution
Digitize/display at frame speed
256 gray levels in
16 Meg, color palette out _
PC/XT/AT compatible
$849.00 Complete with software
VISA/MC Demo Disk available
Control Vision
P.O. Box 596, Pittsburg, KS 66762
(316)231-6647
Find out how our whole family of
EMU-TEK graphics terminal emulation
software makes gixxl sense for the work you do.
Call today for more information.
(714) 995-3900
(800) 962-3900 (800) 972-3900 (Calif.)
10801 Dale St., Suite M-2
Stanton, CA 90680
Circle 128 on Reader Service Card
VERSION 2 of Software and Hardware
Programs 20 and 24 pin MM I.
NS, 71, Altera. Cypress. Ricoh/
PanatccPALs. EPLD (UV
erasable), polarity, and RA types.
Functions Include: read, write,
verify, protect, edit, print, and
file load and save of program.
JEDEC files supported.
2716-27512 EPROMs.
Functions Include: read, write,
verify, blank check, HI/LO split,
edit in ASCII, HEX, or Decimal.
INTEL Hex and Motorola 'S'
Record file support.
ON TARGET ASSOCIATES
Products and Services
for Design and Manufacturing Engineers.
Micro Channel Design Consulting
/ ^ Prototype Cards ]
/ - Newsletter |
- - ASICs
^ Extender Cards
x. ""Adapter Bracket Sets
Bum-in Mother Boards
ON TARGET
TARGET
TARGET
We will move your PC/XT/AT products to the
Micro Channel, or create your new design.
CALL: (408) 980-7118
for our Free catalog
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BYTE S S
Opto-Mechanical d* 1200 Baud Modem £ Jgj
Moused* v Modem ^48
Jade 10 MHz Turbo XT _ *398 \
| 640K Motherboard W/256K RAM
jj Floppy Disk Controller
jj 140 Watt Power Supply
jj 101 Enhanced Keyboard
j: Monochrome Graphics System *698 jl
j: 640K RAM, 360K Disk Drive
jj Printer Port, Amdek 31 0A Monitor
jj 30 MB Hard Disk System . . . add s298 j|
jj CGA Color System . add *1 88 ;!
jj EGA Color System . add s398 j;
jj VGA Color System . add s568 jj
ij Jade 10 MHz Turbo 286 _ *845 I
jj 1 MB Motherboard w/640K RAM
jj 200 Watt Power Supply
I Clock/Calendar
I Enhanced 101 Keyboard
j Mono Graphics System _ s1098 |
| 1.2 MB Floppy Drive & Controller
| Printer Port, Amdek 31 0A Monitor >
jj 40 MB Hard Disk System . . . add s438 jj
| 12 MHz, 1 MB of RAM . add *148 £
I
jl Jade 20 MHz Turbo 386 _ *1998 f
\ 1 MB of RAM on Motherboard |
jj 1:1 Interleave FDD/HD Controller i
jj 2 Serial, 1 Parallel, Clock, Calendar jjj
\ 101 Enhanced Keyboard
'<
jj 40 MB Mono Graphics Systems2388 jj
1 1.2 MB Floppy Disk Drive
1 40 MB Hard Disk Drive
| Amdek 310A Monitor
Disk Drives
360K half height . *68
360K full height . *88
TEAC55BV . *78
1.2 MB for AT . *88
3W 720K . *88
3M>" 1.44 MB . *118
5V4" ext. 360K for PS/2 . *218
5'A" ext. 1.2 MB for PS/2 . *258
Hard Disk Drives
10 MB w/controller . *198
20 MB w/controller . s268
30 MB w/controller . *288
40 MB w/controller . *398
40 MB for AT . *338
ST 125 20 MB . *248
ST 138 30 MB . *298
ST 251 40 MB . *368
ST 251-1 40 MB . *448
ST 4096 80 MB . *568
Tape Back-up
Mountain 40 MB XT . *378
Mountain 40 MB AT . *378
Mountain external 40 MB . *498
CMS 60 MB tape . *498
Monitors
Amdek 31 0A amber .
Amdek 41 0A .
14" amber flat screen ....
RGB 640X240 Color ....
EGA 640 x 350 color .
VGA 800x560 .
NEC Multisync GS .
NEC MultiSync II .
NEC MultiSync Plus .
NEC MultiSync XL .
Mutsubishi Diamond Scan
Zenith 1490 flat screen . .
..*98
.*118
.*128
.*258
.*378
.*488
.*188
.*588
.*888
*2068
.*498
.*618
; Sony 800 x 600 Multi Scan . . . .*488
Keyboards
84 Key At-style . s68
101 Key enhanced . *78
Printers
EPSON LX-800 9 PIN . *188
EPSON FX-850 . Call
EPSON FX-1050 . Call
EPSON EX-800 . Call
EPSON LQ-500 24 PIN . *299
EPSON LQ-850 . Call
EPSON LQ-950 . Call
EPSON LQ-1050 . Call
EPSON DFX-5000 . Call
Okidata 320 . *338
Okidata 321 . *468
Okidata 390 . *468
Okidata 391 . *638
Okidata 393 . *928
Terminals
WYSE model 30 . *288
WYSE model 50 . *368
WYSE model 85 . *438
Joystick
Kraft 3 button Joystick . *19
Dual Game Port . *19
Plotter
Roland DXY 885 . *898
Houston Intruments . Call
Hewlett Packard all models . Call
Scanner
Complete Hand Scanner . *178
Logitech Scan Man . s248
Diamond Flower 3000 . *248
Hewlett Packard ScanJet . Call
Digitizers
Summa Sketch 12 x 12 . *378
Mouse
with Software
$29
LogiTech
LogiMouse Bus . *78
LogiMouse Serial . *78
LogiMouse Hi-rez . *88
Mouse Systems
PC Mouse with Paint . *88
Citizen 120D . *158
Citizen 180D . *168
NEC P2200 . *358
NEC P5200 . *528
NEC P5300 . *698
Microsoft
Mouse w/Paintbrush . *98
Mouse w/CAD . Call
Mouse w/Window . Call
Complete PC
Complete Hand Scanner . *178
^ U1 Complete FAX 4800 . *298
Complete FAX 9600 . !458
> Daisywheel Printer jj Comp|eteAnsweringMachine--S248
S 40 CPS Parallel and serial . . . s248 | Switch Boxes
^■*•*•'•"•*•*•"•*•***•*'*****•’*''*•***•*'’•’**'"*'■*****''•■'-•**'***-**••■**"•-*-'■*•’•'•'•*•**'****''■*''■*^•****'■'•*•*•*'*•’•*"41 Parallel or Serial (Specify)
Hewlett Packard DeskJet
DeskJet . *698
128K PDP Desk RAM . *98
EPSON emulation cartridge . *68
TMS RM/HELV Soft Font . *98
Ink cartridge . s19
Hewlett Packard LaserJet
LaserJetll . Call
25 in One Font Cartridge . *398
4 MB card w/0 memory . *188
1 MB memory card . *348
2 MB memory card . *648
4 MB memory card . *1148
Toner cartridge . *98
2wayAB . *28
3 way ABC . *38
4 way ABCD . *58
5 way ABCDE . *68
Crossover X . *68
AutoSwitch 3 way . *198
AutoSwitch 6 way . *248
Modems
1200 internal w/software . *48
2400 internal w/software . s98
1200 external . *88
2400 external . *158
2400 PS/2 internal . *178
Intel 2400B for PS/2 . *278
Intel
8087 . *98 80287-10 ...*268
8087-2 . *143 80387-SX ..*398
8087-1 . s198 80387- 16... *398
80287-6 .... *1 58 30387-20 . . . *478
80287-8 .... *228 80387-25 . . . *598
Above board PC 64K . *268
Above board 286 51 2K . *468
In board 386 . *1098
Cables
6' printer . *12
10' printer . *18
25' printer . *28
9' serial . *18
25' serial . *28
50' serial . *38
100' serial . *58
Keyboard extender . *12
Monitor extender . *16
Printer extender . *16
Boards
Monographics w/Parallel . *48
Color Graphics w/Parallel . *48
EGA card . *148
VGA card . *258
AST EGA Par/Ser/Clock . *168
Dual game port . *19
XT 1/0 Par/Ser/Clk/Game . *58
AT 1/0 Par/Ser/Game . *58
360/720K 1 .2/1 .44 MB FDC . *48
AT FDD/HD controller . *128
XT Hard Disk controller . *58
AST SixPak Plus . *118
AST XFormer . *578
Paradise auto EGA 350 . *168
Paradise VGA+ . *268
Surge Protector
S. L. Waber 6 outlet . *18
Isobar 4 outlet . *48
Isobar 8 outlet . *68
Isobar modem protector . *24
Tripplite Battery Back-up
450 Watt UPS . *398
750 Watt UPS . *498
1200 Watt UPS . *698
Tripplite Line Stabilizer
600 Watt LC . *98
1200 Watt LC . *158
1800 Watt LC . *188
Accessories
Kensington Master Piece . *88
MicroSpeed PC-Trac Ball . *78
Vertical CPU stand . s18
Keyboard drawer . *58
Monitor Tilt-n-Swivel . *18
4901 W. Rosecrans Ave. Box 5046
Hawthorne. California 90251-5046
California
Torrance, Santa Ana, Woodland Hills
Kearny Mesa. Sunnyvale
Texas
Addison. Houston
JADE COMPUTER
Place orders and use our technical support toll free!
Continental U.S.A. 1-800-421-5500 Inside California 1-800-262-1710
Fax machine 1-213-675-2522/All others 1-213-973-7707
Georgia Arizona
Smyrna Phoenix
Not all items in stock at
our nine retail locations.
We accept checks, credit card or purchase availability subject to change without notice,
orders from qualified firms and institutions. Shipping and handling charges via UPS
No surcharge on credit card orders. CA., TX. ground 50C/lb. UPS air S1 .00/lb. Minimum
GA. & AZ. residents add sales tax. Prices and charge s3.00.
Circle 115 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 -BYTE 335
ThelnVT
SPEECH
PRODUCTS
For PCs and compatibles
VOICE
MASTER
KEY
EPROM PROGRAMMER
CROSS ASSEMBLERS
MODEL
SX151
RS232C OR STAND ALONE (all models). Com¬
munication protocol: XMODEM. HEX, and
BIN. Programs EEPROMS. 2716 - 27512 and
CMOS. Programs (w/adapter): 25XX. 27101
(and above). 68701, 68705, 68764/6. 8741/2,
8744, 8748 '9, 8751/2. 8755. 87252. and
CMOS. More available soon Model SX151
$214 (assembled with case). Other models
are available from $49 (kit).
Cross assemblers by Pseudocode for IBM-
PCs $35. Z80, 1802. 6502, 6800/1/2/3/5/8/9/
11, 68000/8/10 8048/9, 8051/2, 8080/5,
8096, and more soon.
KORE, Inc.
6910 Patterson S.E.
Caledonia, Ml 49316
(616) 791-9333
$5 for shipping (USA), plus S3.00 COD.
JB UNIVERSAL COMPUTER INTERFACE
RS232 ADAPTER TO JB-BUS $149
CENTRONICS ADAPTER TO JB-BUS $99
The JB universal interlace cards can be connected externally to
just about any computer with a standard interlace Affordable and
portable data acquisition, monitoring & control.
JBAD8-16 Analog input. 16 ch. 8-bits, gam 1. 10. 100 $149
JBDI064 Digital I/O, 32 TTL inputs. 32 TTL outputs $99
JBBAT Battery option, great for laptop computers $99
PC COMPATIBLE INTERFACE CARDS
DIGITAL OSCILLOSCOPE SYSTEM $99
AD8-1 card & DIG-OSC-8 Software _
j-sv range
DAS 12 (Sale Price ends February 28, 1989) $249
’ 8 hi-Z, 12-bit S.E. Analog input channels
* GAIN of 1, 10. 100
* Full Scale: +/- 10V, 5V. 500mV, 50mV
* 25uS conversion
* software to simulate 8 channel DVM. data logger, plot data
* 7 TTL I/O. trigger sampling or control external devices
DAS8F $199
’ high speed (15uS conversion) 8-bit data acquisition system
* 8 hi-Z, S.E. input channels, GAIN of 1, 10. 100, 0-5V Full Scale
• optional 8-bit analog output, add S50
Prices, availability and specifications are subject to change
Jbcomf wtrohTx
3816 N. Wadsworth Blvd.
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033
(303) 425-9586
Call for FREE CATALOG, accept MC/VISA orders
Circle 67 on Reader Service Card
Circle 99 on Reader Service Card
6805/6305
SINGLE CHIP
MICROCOMPUTER DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS
Each of three products allows the IBM PS2/PC/
XT/AT to be used as a complete development
system for the Motorola 6805 series single
chip microcomputers. MCPM-1 supports the
MC68705 family, MCPM-2 supports the
MC1468705 family and MCPM-3 supports the
MC68HC05 family. Each system is $495 and
includes a programming circuit board or pro¬
grammer with driver, cross assembler and
simulator/debugger software. A system is also
available for the HITACHI 63705 ZTAT micro.
THE ENGINEERS COLLABORATIVE
Route 3, Box 8C, Barton, VT 05822
(802) 525-3458 FAX (802) 525-3451
336 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 257 on Reader Service Card
Circle 119 on Reader Service Card
Circle 123 on Reader Service Card
Get the whole
story on graphics
terminal emulation.
To find out more about software
that lets your PC emulate
TEKTRONIX ,M 4105/6/7/9 and
DEC VTIOO™ terminals,
call or write:
GRAFPOUTT
4340 Stevens Creeks Blvd., Suite 280,
San lose, CA 95129 (408) 249-7951
The clear alternative
to DEC terminals!
VT220, VT241, D400 emulators.
^m'TTZ
SYSTEMS LTD.
2150 West Broadway, Suite 412
Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6K 4L9
Tel: 604-732-7411 Fax: 604-732-0715
Circle 121 on Reader Service Card
THROW AWAY YOUR
COMPUTER MANUALS!
Learn Popular Software
Programs With . . .
VIDEO INSTRUCTION TOOLS
Lotus 1-2-3 (4 hours) . $ 99.95
WordPerfect 5.0 (4Vi hours) . 129.95
WordPerfect 4.2 (3 hours) . 99.95
DOS 3.3 (3’ ? hours) . 129.95
Intro To IBM-PC (1? hours) . 79.95
PageMaker 3.0 - PC (2 hours) . 179.95
PageMaker 3.0 - MAC (2 hours) . 179.95
Ventura Publisher (2 hours) . 179.95
Ventura - techniques (2 hours) . 179.95
Q& A(1’/jhours) . 79.95
Microsoft Word - MAC 4.0 (2 .5 hours) . 129.95
Microsoft Works (1 '/.■ hours) . 79.95
HyperCard - MAC (2 hours) . 79.95
These video tapes are self-contained training
guides, which demonstrate every command in a
given software package, while showing the com¬
puter screen and keyboard SIMULTANEOUSLY.
Save money . . . call today!
MICHAEL HALVERSON & ASSOCIATES
1313 Newburgh. Westland. Ml 48185
(313) 729-0325 / FAX: (313) 729-0238
FOR PRODUCT INFORMATION
1-800-537-1641
MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED
Circle 149 on Reader Service Card
SYNTHESIZER— only $79.95
The next versatile and best sounding speech product available for
under $4000! The amazing Speech Thing provides text-to-
speech as well as PCM and ADPCM speech and music repro¬
duction. Comes with “Thing” D/A converter that attaches to the
parallel printer port outside the computer— ideal for laptops. Will
not interfere with normal printer operation . Also comes with audio
amplifier/speaker and power adapter. Software includes two ad¬
vanced text-to-speech programs, digitized speech and music
files, full screen waveform editor, sampling music keyboard,
special effects mixing board, and drivers so you can add speech
and sound effects to programs written in BASIC, C, PASCAL, and
others. Includes 54 page manual. SPEECH THING-S79.95.
DIGITIZER— only $89.95
The Voice Mister PC Digitizer is a full 8-bit PCM sampler board.
[ Fits in any available slot. Up to 15,000 samples per second.
Input pre-amp has automatic gain control and 4.5 Khz low pass
filter. Includes a quality headset microphone. Software included
for recording and editing sound files for playback through
Speech Thing. Also includes a real-time spectrum display and
oscilloscope display as well as assembly language source list¬
ings for writing your own drivers. BONUS: Voice recognition pro¬
gram included which is callable via an interrupt vector. Demon¬
stration program written in GWBASIC. VOICE MASTER PC
DIGITIZER— $89.95.
VOICE RECOGNITION—
only $49.95
A price/performance break-through! Equal in performance to
other systems costing hundreds more $$$. The amazing Voice
Mister Key program adds voice recognition to just about any pro¬
gram or application. You can voice command up to 256 keyboard
macros. Fully TSR and occupies less than 64K. Instant response
time and high recognition accuracy. Easy and fun to use— no
compilers or editors required. Works with CAD, desktop publish¬
ing, word processor, spread sheet, even other TSR programs. A
genuine productivity enhancer. Voice Master Key can also be
called from within a program for adding voice recognition to
custom applications. Voice Master Key requires the Voice Master
PC Digitizer for operation. (Please note: Voice Mister Key will not
replace the keyboard or mouse except under certain circum¬
stances. Not to be confused with the still unavailable “voice
typewriter ”) VOICE MASTER KEY-S49.95.
BONUS 0FFER1 Buy Voice Mister Key with PC Digitizer for only
$129.95— you save $10!
BETTER BONUS OFFER! Buy all three: Speech Thing, PC Digi¬
tizer, and Voice Master Key tor only $189.95— you save $20!
ALL OF THESE PRODUCTS ARE OF PROFESSIONAL QUALITY.
ORDER HOTLINE: (503) 342-1271
Monday-Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM Pacific Time
Add $5 tor shipping and handling on all orders. Add an additional
$3 for 2nd day delivery. All goods shipped UPS. Master Card and
VISA, money order, cashiers check or personal checks accepted
(allow a 3 week shipping delay when paying by personal check).
Foreign inquiries contact Covox for C&F price quotes. Specify
computer type when ordering. 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARAN¬
TEE IF NOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED. ONE YEAR WARRANTY
ON HARDWARE. C|„ fREE p[odud cltllog
COVOX INC 675-D CONQER ST.,
EUQENE, OREGON 97402 U.S.A.
TEL: 503-342-1271 FAX: 503-342-1283
17700 Figueroa Street • Carson , Calif ornia 90248
Color Monitor
Laptop Blowout O
HEC MuHiSpeed EL 229s(
Better
Than
Spreadsheets, word processing, data bases and tele¬
communications, a simple task for the MultiSpeed EL.
Two 720 K/Byte 3V2” disk drives, MS/DOS. 640 K
RAM, NiCad batteries, text editor with 20,000 word spel¬
ling checker make the “EL'’ a super value at S2295 but
at $695 its a steal. Also Avaliable: Custom carrying
case and internal modem.
A true Backlit Supertwist LCD display!
T ake it to school, court or news events. The‘‘EL" Laptop
does all the work of a desktop and its portable. Best of
all the“EL" functions in areas where little light is avail¬
able. The ideal computer for any one who needs com¬
puting power on the go!
Ideal for CAD/CAM and Desk Top publishing applications The Roland
CD/240 color monitor has a resolution ol 720 pixels by 400 lines on a .3 1 mm
dot pitch 12" non-glare screen. VGA specifications in text mode EGA in
graphic mode.
Comparable monitor and card packages retail at over $1095. California
Digital has made a special purchase and is able to offer the CD/240 and 1 32
column VGA/EGA graphic card lor only $389.
20" Analog Color
Build Your Own
^ Computer
Speech Recognition System
* 1195
'J H Ever try gathering a classroom of stu-
I dents around a 1 2 inch monitor? This 20
(inch analog RGB monitor is the ideal
i solution. High screen resolution ol 1 200
pixels by 950 lines allow extra fine detail
_ without the dots looking like golf balls
■- 256 colors and VGA compatible.
* Super value onginally sold for over
$2000. Only 350 available
Does your computer listen to you? Install the Voice Scribe and have your
computer respond to 1000 word and phrase commands
One word can save over 20 keystrokes, its faster and more accurate
Don’t Keystroke! The Voice Scribe makes repetitive data entry simple Perfect
for shipping and inventory control, accounts payable and receivables, control¬
ling machinery or any application where hands free is important The Voice
Scriber has assisted many handicapped in home and office environment
Certified to 99.3% accuracy. Ideal lor security clearance applications The
system can be trained to respond only to your voice
Voice Scriber System is shipped complete with PC card, software, application
manual and Shure noise canceling microphone.
California Digital has all the components needed to customize your own
computer. Buy as much computing power as you need now, and up grade
when the need arises. Here arc some examples of components available
8 slot 10 MHz Mother board . S89 Monochrome card, printer port . . . 25
8 slot 1 2 MHz baby AT Motherboard . 229 MonoGraphics (hercules) printer port . 45
Full size five drive AT case . 35 Color Graphics card . 49
Four drive XT case . 25 EGA Color Multi Resolution II . 159
101/102 AT/XT German mfq. Keyboard ..57 I/O card, serial A parallel . 35
200 watt AT power supply . 59 I/O PLUS, Ser/ParT. clock, game . 59
Tcac 360K/Byte disk drive . 59 Disk I/O. disk control, clock, game . 59
Scanner
Head Crash, Power Spikes or just poor disk maintenance...
Don't loose data because you didn't back up. The All/40 is an
inexpensive way to save and restore files in the event that your
data has been distroyed.
This 40 megabyte half height tape back is manufactured by North
Americas largest producer of data retrieval equipment.
No need to purchase a separate tape controller... the ALL/40
attaches directly to your existing floppy disk controller. Supplied
software allows your computer to back up any time Day or
Night. Come back in the morning and 40 megabytes of irreplac-
able data has been stored on one Scotch DC/2000 data cassette.
Back up entire hard disk, modified files only, or by file name. Loss
of data is inevitable but when you are backed up on an ALL/40 its
not a catastrophe.
As Low As
California Digital otters over 100 different digitizers. We have two which
appear to otter the best values. Both are 12 by 12 . one thousand Ime per inch
resolution, are supplied with tour button cursor and stylus
The first digitizer is the Genius Tablet priced at only $259. This is a new product
from KYE o( Taiwan
The other unit, pictured above, is the Puma Pro manufactured by Hitachi and
warrantied tor ten years. The Puma boast a 0015' repeatability only $359
The Saba Scanner inputs a printed page in less than three seconds OCR
software allows your computer to transfer printed pages into ASCII files or
directly to spreadsheets and word processing programs.
Archival data, legal briefs No problem Simply inset the page into the Saba
and in seconds the document is digested into your computer and ready for
editing Limited quantities available Original price $1299. now only $359
40 Megabyte Hard Disk Kit
Hitachi if hi 17
Plotter *8i
Forty megabyte internal hard
disk drive, controller and cables
all for only $397.
The kit includes the a 40 mil¬
lisecond Miniscribe 3650 drive
and a half slot Western Digital
controller.
One Two Ten
TEC501 y2 height sgl.side 49 39 35
TANDON 101/4 fullht. 96 TPI. 99 89 79
FUJITSU 51/4” half height 65 63 57
MITSUBISHI new 501 half ht. 119 109 105
MITSUBISHI 504A AT comp. 149 139 135
TEACFD55BV half height 89 85 79
TEAC FD55FV 96 TPI, half ht. 119 109 105
TEAC FD55GF for IBM AT 109 105 99
PANASONIC 455 Half Height 109 99 89
PANASONIC 475 1.2 Meg./96 119 115 109
Switching power supply 49
Dual enclosure for 5V4” drives 59
The Hitachi 672/XD is a four color 1 1 by 1 7 (B size) plotter with
superior accuracy and repeatability ( 3mm). The 672 accepts
HPGL 7475 commands and is both Centronics parallel and
RS232C compatible.
The 672 plots at a fast eight inches per second in axial direction
and eleven inches at an angle of 45 degrees. The plotter also
features a sell contained digitizing function that allows data to be
entered into your computer Irom printed graphs and blue prints.
Four different color pens are supplied with the plotter but a wide
variety of technical pens are available
• Winchester Controllers for IBM/PC •
XEBEC 1220 with floppy controller 159
DTC 5150CX 119
OMTI 5527 RLL controller 99
ADAPTEC 2070 RLL controller 99
ADAPTEC 2372A 1/1 interleaf 159
WESTERN DIGITAL WD/1002WX2 89
WESTERN DIGITAL 1003WAH or WA2 139
WESTERN DIGITAL 1007/WA2 ESDI 239
• SCSI/SASI Winchester Controllers •
XEBEC 1410A 5V4" footprint 239
WESTERN DIGITAL 1002-05E 5V4” 229
OMTI 20L 89
• Winchester Accessories •
Dual floppy enc. and powersupply 59
Winchester enclosure and supply 139
Switching powersupply 49
Five Inch Winchester Disk Drives
Price does not include controller, each two+
SEAGATE 225 20 Meg. Vz Ht. 239 229
SEAGATE 238 30 Meg. RLL 259 249
SEAGATE 251/151 M.28mS. 459 445
SEAGATE 4096 96 M.35mS. 659 639
MINISCRIBE 8425 25 M 65ms239 227
MINISCRIBE3650 50M 61 ms. 419 399
MINISCRIBE 6085 90 meg. 795 779
MINISCRIBE 3053 25 ms. Vzht. 459 439
FUJITSU 2242 55 M.35mS. 1299 1229
FUJITSU 2243 86 M.35mS. 1695 1619
R0DIME RO-204E 53 Meg. 895 859
MAXTOR XT1140 140 Meg. 1595 1550
MAXTOR XT2190 192 Meg. 1919 1875
TOSHIBA MK56 70 M.30mS.1289 1229
CONTROL DATA WREN "V" call
Heath H/89
Computer
31/2” DISK DRIVES
SONY MP-53W 720K/Byte 129 125 119
SONY MP-73W, 2 Meg. 159 149 call
TEAC 35FN 720 K/Byte 129 119 115
TEAC 35HN/30, 2 Meg. 159 149 145
5V4” form factor kit 20
8” DISK DRIVES
QUME 842 double sided
QUME 841 single sided
SHUGART 851 R dbl. sided
REMEX RFD4000 dbl. sided
OLIVETTI 851
Hard to believe but we found a stash of brand new Zenith/Heath
Model H/89 computers. These computers feature the Zilog Z-80
CPU and operate under CP/M. The unit incorporates a 12 inch
green screen, three serial ports and one 5V.»" disk drive.
Zenith’s original price was $1895. We have 350 units available (or
sale, while supplies Inst we are ottering the H/89 at only $179
Word processing and communication software included. _
8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Pacific Time
Every year since 1 973. customers from virtually every nation in the free
World have chosen California Digital for their data processing requirements.
If its computer, California Digital has it... complete minisystem or just one
microchip. California Digital offers over 1 0,000 unique computer products.
Regardless of how specialized your data processing requirements...
California Digital is your one stop shopping solution.
TECHNICAL A CAUFORMA
(213) 217-0500
TOLL FREE ORDER UNE
(800)421-5041
Telefax • (213) 217-1951
FEBRUARY 1989 ‘BYTE 337
Circle 76 on Reader Service Card
F7J
*FREE! DataSaver . . .
a $13.95 diskette tiler!!
no nn Quantity Discounts Available
min. 5 boxes
.69
1.47
1.79
.39
5.25" 3M Diskettes
3.50" 3M Diskettes
8.00" 3M Diskettes
DS-HD
*1.15
3.59
2.05
DC-1000.
DC-2000 .
12.50 DC-300XLP
<mln 10 bx)
. .19.40
17.05 DC-600A . 21.45
3M Mag. Tapes 2400' WTS (min io reels) . 12.50
3M Mag. Tapes 1200' WTS (mm io reels)
.9.25
BASF
♦FREE Plastic
Library Box
Quantity Discounts Available
. 5.25" BASF Diskettes .
. 8.00" BASF Diskettes .
3.50" BASF Diskettes in FREE
. . Color-Coder a s1495 Value ..
DS-HD
.89
1.79
DSHD
3.69
.38
5.25" DS/DD BASF Diskettes with
FREE BASF VCR Tape or Plastic Box
5.25" DS/DD BASF NoLogo Diskettes
’ with Tyvek sleeves, labels & w/p
DataLife
DS-DD Quantity Discounts Available DSHD
.69 . 5.25" DataLife Diskettes . . . 1.29
1.49 . 3.50" DataLife Diskettes . . . 3.75
.85 . . . 5.25" DataLife Plus Diskettes with
FREE! DISCUS Software
maxell
'with FREE Game
or Plastic Box
DS-DD Quantity Discounts Available DSHD
,65*... , . . 5.25" Maxell R & D . . *1.19
1.49 . . 3.50" Maxell R & D . . 3.69
MAXELL DATA CARTRIDGES
DC-600A DC300XL/P DC-2000
19.50
INliisIhnuiii
17
.50
16.!
MD ?HD
MF-2 E
ill
.79
1.24K
BULK DISK
RIBBONS STORAGE
— Please call for information —
TERMS: No surchage on VISA, Mastercard or AMEX.
COD only add $3.00. Prepaid orders deduct 2% cash
discount. PO’s accepted from recognized institutions and
corporations on Net 30. Bank draft, T/T or L/C acceptable
Shipping: $4/100 or fewer disks. Reduced shipping
charges on larger quantities Price quoted for case (100
disks) quantities less than a case add 5%. (Mm order
$25 00)
WE BEAT ANY PRICE!
Toll Free Order Line: Information Line:
1-800-523-9681 1-801-255-0080
TLX-9102404712 FAX-801-572-3327
n DISKCOTECH
DISKCO TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
213 Cottage Avenue
P.O. Box 1339 Sandy, Utah 84091
338 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Okidata ML 82A and ML 83A Printers:
IBM EMULATION “PLUS”
Epson Compatability/Le tter Quality
PC-WRITER'
ONLY
$99. 00
plus shipping & saies
tax (Calif addresses)
Money back guarantee
•FULL EMULATION OF THE IBM PC
GRAPHICS PRINTER
•LETTER QUALITY PRINTING
•ELITE CHARACTER PITCH
• SUBSCRIPTS/SUPERSCRIPTS
• DOT ADDRESSABLE GRAPHICS
•FR0NTPANEL FEATURE
To Order: (714) 261-0228
Dealer Information Available
O RAINBOW
TECHNOLOGIES, INC
18011-A Mitchell So., Irvine, CA 92714
(714) 261-0228 Telex: 386078
Circle 83 on Reader Service Card Circle 197 on Reader Service Card
BIOS
SOURCE
CODE
The Tin AT BiosKit is a book with diskettes
containing source code in C, plus utility pro¬
grams to help you create a Bios. Now you can
have a Bios with documentation for your own
applications: modify boot-up, eliminate the
keyboard, install security features, etc. Only
$199 complete. The XT BiosKit is only $99, or
get both BiosKits for $279. The Intel Wildcard
SuoDlement for the XT BiosKit is $49.
- XT-AT HANDBOOK -
The XT-AT Handbook is full of hardware and software
information in a shirt pocket size book Over 70 pages
covering 38 subjects, including connectors, I/O maps,
controller programming. DOS and DEBUG com¬
mands, board dimensions, character codes, hard disk
drive types, and much more. Only $9.95 each qty 1-4,
five or more, $5 each. F9P1
Annabooks
12145 Alta Carmel Ct Suite 250-262
San Diego, California 92128
(619) 271-9526
Circle 15 on Reader Service Card
Circle 190 on Reader Service Card
Circle 112 on Reader Service Card
DATA ACQUISITION
ELEXOR
Circle 255 on Reader Service Card
IEEE 488
Solutions
Hardware & software interfaces for PC. AT,
386, PS/2, Macintosh, SUN, HP & DEC
IEEE converters to SCSI, RS-232, RS-422,
modem, Centronics, digital I/O & analog I/O
IEEE extenders, expanders & buffers
IEEE drivers for DOS, UNIX*. Lotus 1-2-3,
Symphony & Quattro.
Call or send for your
FREE Technical Guide
Demo disks and application notes available
lOtech
see our
ad on
page 111
ALL needs ! ANY computer !
• PC Software Included
• Serial, Modem, & Bus
• Stand Alone Ability
H* Laptop & Handheld
• PC & MAC Cards
' - • Inexpensive
i«SHi'i*0EM4VAR
. - — . r> ^ . RTU’S
Call for applications info: (201) 299-1615
P.O. Box 246; Morris Plains, NJ 07950
Call for FREE DEMO DISK !
Specialists in portable and battery backed up
as well as PC compatible modular systems.
(216) 439-4091
Telex 6502820864 • l ax (216)439-4093
lOtech. Inc. • 25971 Cannon Road
Cleveland, Ohio 44146
Z80 or HD64180
& i
P iC-80 jm Ji
iC-80 In-Circuit Emulator
• Can be configured for Z80 or HD64180.
• C source code level debugging with our C
compiler.
• Works with IBM-style PC.
• 64K overlay memory.
• Base price $995.00. $1340.00 including one
probe and symbolic debug software.
Z- World, 1772 Picasso Ave, Davis, CA 95616
(916) 753-3722
Fax: (916) 753-5141.
In Germany: iSystem 08131/1687
ACPSWmSHEET
MMC
MICROCOMPUTER
MARKETING COUNCIL
ol the Direct Market**) Association Vic
SPECIAL BUY!
HANDSCAN
by saba
469:
Don't confuse Handscan with
other lowcost scanners on the
market.. .many deluxe features!
Never before available at this
special low price. ..order now!
LOW COST COMPATIBLE CARDS
ACP Advanced Cards IBM
Monographics/HGA w/print port . 55.
Colorgraphics w/pnnter port 55.
SuperEGA. Genoa compatible 1 49.
SuperVGA. 1024 x 768. 269.
Diamond Multi l/0,2s.p,g.clk/XT 1 39.
XT Six-Pak compatible/OK . 89.
XT 286 Accelerator card . 269.
XT Multi I/O w/floppy controller ... 69.
XT dual floppy controller . 29.
XT Serial I/O card . 29.
XT/AT Parallel I/O card . 29.
AT Serial I/O card . 39.
XT/AT Game adapter port . . 29.
XT/AT EPROM programmer. . . 149.
XT (loppy controller. 1.44Mb
AT 3.0Mb w/Multi I/O, OK
AT SuperMulti l/Ow/tloppy
PS/2 Multi I/O ...
PS/2 Roppy controller 1 ,44Mb .
HP LaserJet 1Mb Ram card
MOTHERBOARDS
XT Turbo w/BIOS. 8MHz .
XT Turbo w/BIOS, 10MHz
AT 286 w/BIOS. 10 MHz
AT Baby w/BIOS. 12MHz
AT 386 w/BIOS. 16MHz
COMPLETE PC
CFAX 4800 PC fax board .
CHS 200DPI Hand Scanner .
j/prj Your Choice...
/Ol Advantage AT
*2%*°' "*• or Rampage AT
08S QUADRAM Silver Qui
Wl Silver Quad QQ
(Sixpak compatible) /.
Liberty XT, EMS . s89.
Quadsprint Accellerator....s89.
99.
89. a
AST Research
Xlormer/286, 512K, 10MHz call.
Advantage 2/386.0K.EMS PS/2 399.
Adv Prem AT286/512K LIM 4.0 399.
Rampage2/,512K,EEMS,PS/2. 699.
Rampage AT .512K.LIM4 0,to2Mb 489.
RampagePlus/MC,0K,model50.6O 399.
RampagePlus/286,0K,up to8Mb 399.
AST Sixpakplus, OK . call.
ATI Technologies
EGA Wonder 800 288.
VGA/VIP 299.
VGA Wonder (1024x768) call.
2400etc int. Modem w/MNP-5 . 1 99.
GENOA
Super EGA/Hi-Res Plus . 229.
Super VGA/Hi-Res . 339.
SuperVGA/ . 299
Superspectrum mono /CGA/HGA 1 49.
INTEL
lnboard386PCto386/16MHz,1Mb 895.
lnboard386/ATto386/16MHz 1095.
lnboard386/AT install kits.ea 185.
lnboard386/AT 1Mb piggyback bd. 595.
AboveBoard 2 Plus.0K,mod50/60 329.
AboveBoard 286.51 2K.0S/2PS/2 399.
QNUMONICS SPECIAL PURCHASE!!
Cordless Mouse 0095
Includes drivers, charger, reciever. ppn inane
T-mouse & PC Paint neg. laa.yD
Manager Mouse f*n95
Includes drivers, charger, reciever, Reg 149 95
. INPUT DEVICES • MICE -
Advanced PC Keyboards
5160 84key XT/AT switchable 59.
5161 lOlkey XT/ATswitchabie .... 79.
CH Products
Mach II Joystick-IBM . 30.
Mach 1 1 1 Joystick-1 BM . 44 .
Gamecard lll/IBM 44.
KEYTRONICS
KB5151 Deluxe IBM PC w/99 keys 169.
KB101 101 key/AT . 110.
KB51 53 keyboard wAouchpad 199.
KRAFT
IBM PC/XT/AT Joystick/2 button 29.
IBM PC/XT/AT Jpig'ick/3 button 34.
LOGITECH
Bus Mouse PC/XT/AT
Serial Mouse PC/XT/AT .
Serial Mouse PS/2
MICROSOFT
Bus Mouse w/PC Paintbrush
Serial Mouse w/PC Paintbrush
Serial PS/2 w/PC Paintbrush
MSC Technologies
PC Mouse serial PC/XT/AT . .
PS/2 Mouse serial .
PC Mouse bus PC/XT/AT .
SUMMAGRAPHICS
SummaSketch Plus/IBM
77 ore to choose.. , w,,M1
•3 .5-OS/DC 1 1Mb 1® |U5 IBM DS/DD Gray Disks
•3.5“ HD Backed by DATARESCUE.. .Polaroid will
•5.25“ HD l.oi'V'Di • _jrptrpivp your data FREE if yiu lose it!
Quantity of
1 to4, only
^ 7.50 each.
i Polaroid® DataRescue1
17
^799.
'-^^MAX/ Ad van ced
v ^ 286/10 MHz BareBones
Includes 101 -key keyboard. 1.2Mb floppy, floppy/HD
controller card, OK expands to 1 Meg.
Call for Custom Configurations...
FLOPPY DISC DRIVES
LATEST
PRICES AND
PRODUCTS!
lip
SONY
31/2-Micro Floppy 1 44Mb
TEAC
55BV 360K Floppy/PC/XT/AT .
TOSHIBA AMERICA
FDD4403 31/2’ Micro 720K .
31/2' Micro 1.44Mb w/kit
ND04D 360K Floppy black bezel
139. ND04E-G 360K Floppy AT gray .
N008DE-G 1.2Mb AT gray.
89 ADVANCED
360K Floppy-black bezel
1 2Mb Floppy-black bezel
3.5* 1.44Mb Floppy wAit . .
139- 3.5' 720K Floppy w/kit
IBM ^
Blowout'
Sale ///r*
If you missed the IBM Auction in Atlanta-
WE WERE THERE- and we bought big! On this Mon¬
day 12/12 we start unloading 5 truckloads of IBM
PC,s, expansion boards, memory and over 60,000
real IBM software packages...
• IBM XT/286 . 1395.* IBM Filing Asstnt 2!
SpEHASE*|j 85Mb Hard Drive
Includes EDSI AT Controller...
Tf J AC P's Special
/flM Year-End Sale!
"T AC P's Special
f Year'End Sale!
20 Mb Q
Drive Kit f§jpj§gpri
Mo Hard Card
288.
AboveBoard PS/286,51 2K, mod 30 475.
8087 102. 80287-8 255.
8087-1, PS/2 205. 80287-10 309.
8087-2 158. 80387-16 549.
80287-6 185. 80387-20 799.
ORCHID Technology
Tiny Turbo 286 -reduced! 299.
Designer 800 8-bit, EGA Card . 269.
ProDesigner 16-bit VGA 329.
ProDesignerPlus 16-bit VGA.512K 499.
RAMQUEST 50/PS/2, 2Mb. . 699.
PARADISE
VGA Plus 289.
VGA Plus 16 369.
VGA Professional 369.
Autoswitch 480 EGA card . ... 199.
QUADRAM
Microlazerll buffer w/64K 269.
Quadsprint XT accelerator 89.
Liberty EMS XT card, OK 89.
Silver Quadboard, Sixpak comp 89.
VIDEO 7
VEGA Deluxe. EGA Card 219.
VegaVGA, 8-bit VGA card . . 329.
Fastwnte VGA. 1 6-bit VGA card 419.
VramVGA, CAD VGA card . 649.
At this low low price,
you can’t afford not to
buy one .
• IBM PC/3270 . 1095.* IBM Xenix . call.
• IBM PC/XT268 . 895. • IBM 3270 Emulator .. 25.
• PC Voice Comm Card 149. • IBM 3101 Emulator .. 25.
• AT Exp Card 0Kto2Mb 49. • IBM Education Series
• Monochrome adaptor 39. Software, choose from f*
•Color adaptor . 49. 300 titles from O-
• AT Prototype board .. 25. ...the IBM Productivity Family
• Synchronous Comm ‘Appointment . 19.
adaptor . 49. • Assett catalog . 1 9.
• 3270 Exp Card, 1 Mb . 599. • Mailing Labels . 1 9.
• IBM Reporting Asstnt 25. • Data Edition . 19.
• IBM Writing Asstnt ... 29. • IBM DOS 2.0/3.1 from 15.
ALL IBM SUPER VALUES... ALL
PRICED TO SELL QUICK!
MICROPOLIS
1333A/53Mb,Full ht..30ms. 649.
1 335/95Mb, Full ht. ,30ms, 699.
MAXTOR
XT 1085/85Mb. MFM . 849.
XT 1140/143Mb, MFM 1495.
XT 4380/380Mb, ESDI . . 2995.
PLUS Development
Plus20 Hardcard. 20Mb, 49ms. 549.
Plus40 Hardcard. 40Mb, 39ms. . 699.
SEAGATE
21 Mb.ST225. AT,(65ms)HH, 249.
30Mb,ST238R(65ms)RLL/AT/HH 299.
42Mb.ST251. AT,(40ms)HH 399.
42Mb,ST251 - 1 ,AT,(28ms)HH 450.
65Mb,ST277R, AT.(40ms)HH . 549.
38Mb,ST4038. AT.(40ms)FH 499.
42Mb,ST4051,AT.(40ms)FH 649.
44Mb,ST4053, AT,(28ms)FH 699.
80Mb,ST4096. AT,(28ms)FH 699.
2 1 Mb.ST 1 25. 3 5',(28ms)HH 329.
30Mb, ST 1 38. 3.5',(38ms)HH 429.
WESTERN DIGITAL
FilecardPS30 PS/2 model 30 3 89 .
Filecard30 . 399.
1 006RAH Controller 1 : 1 interleave 199.
1003RAH Controller RLL/AT 187.
1 003WA2 Floppy/Hard/AT 149.
1002-27X Controller RLL/XT 98.
1002-WX1 Controller /XT 89.
•
PRINTERS •
DICONICS/KODAK
HEWLETT PACKARD
150P Portable printer(parallel)
339.
LaserJet Series II .
call.
300P w/wide carnage(parallel)
539.
Deskjet w/iaser quality .
895.
EPSON
Scanjet flatbed scanner
call.
LX800 80column. 180cps
209.
TOSHIBA
EX800.FX286e.FX86c,LQ850,
P321SL, 24pin, 216cps .
499.
LQ1050.LQ500. etc .
call.
P341SL, 24pm, 216cps
699.
ACP is your lull line Epson dealer
P351SX, (color add $179)
Pagelaser 12, High volume laser .
1099.
call.
m FREE CABLE with Purchase!
AqilTOSHIBA [E
“w Wa 321 SL SalelL
»#"321SL Sa/e/f^
:ITIZEN SaTef iliodZ
MODEMS
^ IBM Floppy Disk Drive!!!
V Original DS/DD 360K Drives, 5-1/4"
While Quantities Last'
Advanced MODEMS
1200baud w/sottware(internal) . 69.
1200baud External w/software 89.
2400baud w/software(internal) . . 99.
2400baud External w/software 1 39.
HAYES
Smartmodem 2400B w/sw(int) . . 447.
Smartmodem 2400 External 447.
INTEL
ConnectionCoprocessor w/sw/int 799.
ConnectionCoprocessor 2400baud 249.
2400B Modem2, /50z,60,70,80 319.
2400B Classic Modem2, XT/AT . 269.
MIGENT
Pocket MODEM 1200 sale 95.
PROMETHEUS
2400G External . 188.
2400B/2 w/soltware(internal) 149.
1200B/2 w/sottware(internal) sale 89.
MONITORS
ALPHAMICRO
VCR Videotrax tape backup card 349.
IOMEGA
Bernoulli 20Mb 51/4" internal . 945.
Bernoulli 20Mb 51/4"external 1188.
Tri-pak 20Mb cartridge, 5 1/4" 189.
Tri-pak 20Mb cartridge, 8" 255.
PC3B Adapter card PC/XT/AT.. 189.
PS4 AdapterPS/2mod.50.60.80 299.
IRWIN
1 10D XT/AT 10Mb backup(int) . 199.
1200 AT 20Mb backup(int) 369.
145C AT 40Mb backup(int) . 499.
TALLGRASS Technologies
1020i XT 20Mb backup(int) 319.
I040i AT 40Mb backup(int) (see box)
1040i XT 40Mb backup(int) (see box)
Toshiba Laptops g
The Complete Toshiba family I \
of Laptops from ACP - L.A.'s
#1 Source!
Toshiba #
T-iooo a
Laptop....® ■ — L
T-1200F ...reg. S2099...ACP 1 395J Express
T-1200FB Special Price! call ACP! 311
T-1200H...reg. $3499.. .ACP 2395. 24-Pin I
T-1200HB Special Price! call ACP! I Printer
T-31 00/20 reg. $4699. ..ACP 2995. fN
T-3200 . reg. $5799. ..ACP 3995. STOCKl
T-5100 . reg. $7499. ..ACP 4995.Li-.CLJ
AMDEK
31 0A 12' amber TTL REDUCED - 88!
410A 12' amber green or white . . 153.
1280 13' graphics* 1280x800) 799.
LaserDrive CDROM w/Microso»t 899.
IBM MONITORS
8503 1 2' Mono(640X480) . . 199.
8512 14' Color analog . 499.
8513 12' EGA(640x480) . 549.
8514 16* Hi-res( 1024x768). 1295.
MAGNA VOX
RGB Color display 80/CGA 288.
EGA Color display . 399.
I VGA Color display . 499.
NEC
Multisync I1 1 3' TTL/analog _
Multisync Plus 15' VGA/EGA .
Multisync XL 20 (1024x768)
Monograph sys (1024x1024) .
SAMSUNG-IMTEC
12" amber TTL monochrome
14" amber Hat screen TTL mono .
14' white flat screen TTL mono
14' CG A/RGB Color .
14' EGA Color .
14' VGA Color .
WXSE
WY30 14' terminal .
WV5014' terminal .
WY60 14" terminal ASCII
acp's special 5 New!. . . from
Introductory Price ... RAY-O-VAC® \
AT Replacement Battery
Direct replacement for AT/286/386 real-time clocks
I Software Sale! IBM Writing Ass’t,v2. 99.. Am, n0mj/ar'\
Lotus 1-2*3 ..325. WordPerfect . 258. software in
Ventura . 499. Excel . 299 i\stocik...call!j
ML
419;
Multisynch Compatible
MULTISYNCH
MONITOR
M... ACP's Sale Price!
for the FASTEST SERVICE order by phone...
Mail Orders: P.O. Box 17329 Irvine, CA 92713
Retail: 1310 E. Edinger , Santa Ana, CA 92705
AuthorizecM^ dealers for Hyundai • AST • Epson • Citizen • NEC • Okidata • Maxell • Seagate
Magnavox •'•Sony • Toshiba • Sharp • HP • Intel • Microsoft • Ventura • Aldus • many more...
E800-FONEACP
800-366-3227 • 714-558-8813
Customer Service 714-558-1356
• $25.00 Minimum MAIL ORDER WIM ■■■■■ BS
• No Surcharge lor VISA or Mastercard 1 - ’
• Volume purchasing agreements available • Orders subject to availability
• Pricing subject to change without notice • Supply limlited on certain items
• ACP Retail store pricing may vary Not responsible for typos.
• Limited warranties and other conditions may apply
Call for Corporate VP A 's. . .
Circle 26 on Reader Service Card
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 339
MICROCOMPUTER
MARKETING COUNCIL
Microdevices
STATIC RAMS
PART
SIZE
SPEED
PRICE
2112
256x4
450ns
2.99
2114
1024x4
450ns
.99
2114L-2
1024x4
200ns
1.49
TC5516
2048x8
250ns
3.95
TMM201 6-200
2048x8
200ns
3.25
TMM2016-150
2048x8
150ns
3.29
TMM2016-100
2048x8
100ns
4.29
HM6116-4
2048x8
200ns
4.95
HM6116-3
2048x8
150ns
5.95
HM6116-2
2048x8
120ns
6.45
HM61 16LP-4
2048x8
200ns
5.95
HM61 16LP-3
2048x8
150ns
6.45
HM61 16LP-2
2048x8
120ns
6.95
HM6264LP-15
8192x8
150ns
9.95
HM6264LP-12
8192x8
120ns
10.95
HM43256LP-15
32768x8
150ns
12.95
HM43256LP-12
32768x8
120ns
14.95
HM43256LP-10
32768x8
100ns
19.95
L m CALL TO CONFIRM CURRENT PRICES
- _ A
30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE • 1 YEAR WARRANTY ON ALL PRODUCTS - TOLL-FREE TECHNICAL SUPPORT
COMPLETE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ■ SUPERIOR SERVICE • FRIENDLY, KNOWLEDGEABLE SALES STAFF
CO-PROCESSORS
r DYNAMIC RAMS
PART
SIZE
SPEED
PRICE
4116-200
16384x1
200ns
.89
4116-150
16384x1
150ns
.99
MK4332
32768x1
200ns
6.95
4164-150
65536x1
150ns
2.89
4164-120
65536x1
120ns
3.19
4164-100
65536x1
100ns
3.95
TMS4164
65536x1
150ns
2.89
TMS4416
16384x4
150ns
8.95
41128-150
131072x1
150ns
5.95
TMS4464-15
65536x4
150ns
10.95
TMS4464-12
65536x4
120ns
11.95
41256-150
262144x1
150ns
12.45
41256-120
262144x1
120ns
12.95
41256-100
262144x1
100ns
13.45
41256-80
262144x1
80ns
13.95
HM51 258-100
262144x1
100ns
13.95
1 MB- 120
1048576x1
120ns
34.95
1 MB-100
1048576x1
100ns
37.95
L m CALL TO CONFIRM CURRENT PRICES
■ J
r
EPROMS
1
PART
SIZE
SPEED
Vpp PRICE
2708
1024x8
450ns
25V
4.95
2716
2048x8
450ns
25V
3.49
2716-1
2048x8
350ns
25V
3.95
2732
4096x8
450ns
25V
3.95
2732A
4096x8
250ns
21V
3.95
27C64
8192x8
250ns
12.5 V
4.95
2764
8192x8
450ns
12.5V
3.49
2764-250“
8192x8
250ns
12.5V
3.69
2764-200
8192x8
200ns
12.5V
4.25
MCM68766
8192x8
350ns
21V
15.95
27128
16384x8
250ns
12.5V
4.95
27128A-200
16384x8
200ns
12.5V
5.95
27C256
32768x8
250ns
12.5V
7.95
27256
32768x8
250ns
12.5 V
5.95
27256-200
32768x8
200ns
12.5V
7.95
27512
65536x8
250ns
12.5 V
11.95
27C512
65536x8
250ns
12.5V
12.95
27C101-20
131072x8
200ns
12.5 V
34.95
L m CALL TO CONFIRM CURRENT PRICES
f _ J
CALL OUR WHOLESALE DEPT .
FOR VOLUME QUOTES
r
MICROPROCESSORS
1
6500
0300
6502
2.25
8031
3.95
8253
1.59
6502A
2.69
8035
1.49
8253-5
1.95
6502B
4.25
8039
1.95
8254
2.79
65C02*
7.95
8052AH
8255
1.49
6520
1.65
BASIC
34.95
8255-5
1.59
6522
2.95
8080
2.49
8256
15.95
6522A
5.95
8085
1.95
8257
2.25
6526
13.95
8085A-2
3.75
8257-5
2.49
6532
5.95
8086
6.49
8259
1.95
6545A
3.95
8088
5.99
8259-5
2.29
6551
2.95
8088-1
12.95
8272
4.39
6551 A
6.95
8088-2
7.95
8274
4.95
6581
14.95
8155
2.49
8275
16.95
* CMOS
8155-2
3.95
8279
2.49
8156
2.95
8279-5
2.95
6000
8741
9.95
8282
3.95
6800
1.95
8742
29.95
8283
3.95
8748
7.95
8284
2.25
6802
2.95
8749
9.95
8286
3.95
6803
3.95
8755
14.95
8287
3.95
6809
2.95
80286
79.95
8288
4.95
68B02
3.95
80286-8
249.95
68B09
6809 E
5.99
2.95
80286-10
79.95
z-eo
68B09E
6808
5.49
2.49
0300
Z80-CPU
Z80A-CPU
1.25
1.29
6810
1.95
8203
0.00
Z80B-CPU
2.75
6820
2.95
8205
3.29
Z80A-CTC
1.69
6821
1.25
8212
1.49
Z80B-CTC
4.25
68B21
1.85
8216
1.49
Z80A-DART
5.95
6840
3.95
8224
2.25
Z80B-DART
6.95
6845
2.75
8226
1.69
Z80A-DMA
5.95
68B45
4.95
8228
2.25
Z80A-PIO
1.89
6847
4.75
8237
3.95
Z80B-P10
4.25
6850
1.95
8237-5
4.75
Z80A-SIO/0
5.95
68B50
1.75
8238
4.49
Z80B-SIO 0 12.95
6852
4.95
8243
1.95
Z80A-SIO/1
5.95
6883
22.95
8250
6.95
Z80A-SIO/2
5.95
68000
9.95
8251
1.29
Z80B-SIO 2 12.95
68020
189.95
8251 A
1.69
Z8671 BASIC 9.95 J
KiGH-YSCH
SPOTLIGHT
CMOS PROGRAMMABLE INTERVAL TIMER
RUNS COOLER. FASTER AND USES LESS POWER !
m 3 INDEPENDENT 16-BIT COUNTERS M 24 PIN DIP
a COUNTS BINARY OR BCD * SINGLE +5 V SUPPLY
a DC TO 2 MHZ a LOW POWER CMOS
82C53-5 $3.95
V-EO SERIES
SPEED UP YOUR PC BY 10% TO 40% !
a HIGH SPEED ADDRESS CALCULATION IN HARDWARE
a PIN COMPATIBLE WITH 8088 ■ LOW POWER CMOS
a SUPERSET OF 8088 INSTRUCTION SET
V20* 5 MHz 8.95 V20* 8 MHz 10.95
V20* 10 MHz 12.95 V30 8 MHz 13.95
r LINEAR COMPONENTS
1
TL071
.69
LM380
.89
XR2206
3.95
TL072
1.09
LM383
1.95
XR2211
2.95
TL074
1.95
LM386
.89
LM2917
1.95
TL081
.59
LM393
.45
CA3046
.89
TL082
.99
LM394H
5.95
CA3146
1.29
TL084
1.49
LM399H
5.95
MC3373
1.29
LM301
.34
TL494
4.20
MC3470
1.95
LM309K
1.25
TL497
3.25
MC3480
8.95
LM310
1.75
NE555
.29
MC3487
2.95
LM311
.59
NE556
.49
LM3900
.49
LM311H
.89
NE558
.79
LM3909
.98
LM311K
3.49
NE564
1.95
LM3911
2.25
LM312H
1.75
LM565
.95
LM3914
1.89
LM317T
.69
LM566
1.49
LM3915
1.89
LM318
1.49
LM567
.79
MC4024
3.49
LM319
1.25
NE570
2.95
MC4044
3.99
LM323K
3.49
NE590
2.50
RC4136
1.25
LM324
.34
NE592
.98
RC4558
.69
LM331
3.95
LM723
.49
LM1360
1.49
LM334
1.19
LM733
.98
75107
1.49
LM335
1.79
LM741
.29
75108
1.49
LM336
1.75
LM747
.69
75110
1.95
LM338K
4.49
MCI 330
1.69
75150
1.95
LM339
.59
MCI 350
1.19
75154
1.95
LF347
2.19
LM1458
.35
75188
1.25
LF353
.59
LM1488
.49
75189
1.25
LF356
.99
LM1489
.49
75451
.39
LF357
.99
LM1496
.85
75452
.39
, LM358
.59
ULN2003
.79
75477
1.2S
*T-\
V/ L
^4^/ WARRANTY
INCLUDES MANUAL & SOFTWARE GUIDE
30 DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE
TOLL-FREE TECHNICAL SUPPORT
- 1
s
1
SINGLE IN-LINE MEMORY MODULES
41256A8B-15
256K x 8-BIT MAC COMPATIBLE
150ns
$89.00
41256A8B-12
256K x 8-BIT MAC COMPATIBLE
120ns
99.00
41256A8B-10
256K x 8-BIT MAC COMPATIBLE
100ns
129.00
41256A9B-15
256K x 9-BIT PC COMPATIBLE
150ns $119.00
41256A9B-12
256K x 9-BIT PC COMPATIBLE
120ns
129.00
41256A9B-10
256K x 9-BIT PC COMPATIBLE
100ns
139.00
41256A9B-80
256K x 9-BIT PC COMPATIBLE
80ns
159.00
421 00A9B-10
1 MB x 9-BIT PC COMPATIBLE
100ns
529.00
^2100A9B-80
1 MB x 9-BIT PC COMPATIBLE
80ns
599.00^
r
PALS
STARTER Kir1
16L8
$2.95
20R4
$4.95
EASY TO USE PAL
16R8
2.95
20R6
4.95
PROGRAMMING KIT.
16R6
2.95
20R8
4.95
PROGRAMS ALL THE
16R4
2.95
20X8
4.95
PAL DEVICES AT LEFT.
20L8
L _
4.95
MCT-PAL-SOFT 99.95
_ J
HIGH SPEED CMOS LOGIC
- 1
74HC00
.21
74HC244
.85
74HCT138
.35
74HC04
.25
74HC245
.85
74HCT139
.55
74HC08
.25
74HC273
.69
74HCT157
.59
74HC14
.35
74HC367
.69
74HCT161
.79
74HC32
.35
74HC373
.69
74HCT240
.89
74HC74
.35
74HC390
.79
74HCT244
.89
74HC138
.45
74HC374
.69
74HCT245
.99
74HC139
.45
74HC4040
.89
74HCT273
.99
74HC154
1.09
74HCT00
.25
74HCT373
.99
74HC157
.55
74HCT04
.27
74HCT374
.99
74HC161
.65
74HCT08
.25
74HCT393
.99
74HC164
.65
74HCT32
.27
74HCT4040
.99
^74HC175
.59
74HCT74
.45
74HCT4060
1.49j
r
STANDARD CMOS LOGIC
- 1
4001
.19
4028
.65
4069
.19
4011
.19
4040
.69
4070
.29
4013
.35
4042
.59
4081
.22
4015
.29
4044
.69
4093
.49
4016
.29
4046
.69
14411
9.95
4017
.49
4047
.69
14433
14.95
4018
.69
4049
.29
14497
6.95
4020
.59
4050
.29
4503
.49
4021
.69
4051
.69
4511
.69
4023
.25
4052
.69
4518
.85
4024
.49
4053
.69
4528
.79
4025
.25
4060
.69
4538
.95
4027
.39
4066
.29
4702
9.95
r
74LSOO TTL LOGIC
74LS00
.16
74LS112
.29
74LS241
.69
74LS01
.18
74LS122
.45
74LS242
.69
74LS02
.17
74LS123
.49
74LS243
.69
74LS03
.18
74LS124
2.75
74LS244
.69
74LS04
.16
74LS125
.39
74LS245
.79
74LS05
.18
74LS126
.39
74LS251
.49
74LS08
.18
74LS132
.39
74LS253
.49
74LS09
.18
74LS133
.49
74LS257
.39
74LS10
.16
74LS136
.39
74LS258
.49
74LS11
.22
74LS138
.39
74LS259
1.29
74LS12
.22
74LS139
.39
74LS260
.49
74LS13
.26
74LS145
.99
74LS266
.39
74LS14
.39
74LS147
.99
74LS273
.79
74LS15
.26
74LS148
.99
74LS279
.39
74LS20
.17
74LS151
.39
74LS280
1.98
74LS21
.22
74LS153
.39
74LS283
.59
74LS22
.22
74LS154
1.49
74LS290
.89
74LS27
.23
74LS155
.59
74LS293
.89
74LS28
.26
74LS156
.49
74LS299
1.49
74LS30
.17
74LS157
.35
74LS322
3.95
74LS32
.18
74LS158
.29
74LS323
2.49
74LS33
.28
74LS160
.29
74LS365
.39
74LS37
.26
74LS161
.39
74LS367
.39
74LS38
.26
74LS162
.49
74LS368
.39
74LS42
.39
74LS163
.39
74LS373
.79
74LS47
.75
74LS164
.49
74LS374
.79
74LS48
.85
74LS165
.65
74LS375
.95
74LS51
.17
74LS166
.95
74LS377
.79
74LS73
.29
74LS169
.95
74LS390
1.19
74LS74
.24
74LS173
.49
74LS393
.79
74LS75
.29
74LS174
.39
74LS541
1.49
74LS76
.29
74LS175
.39
74LS624
1.95
74LS83
.49
74LS191
.49
74LS640
.99
74LS85
.49
74LS192
.69
74LS645
.99
74LS86
.22
74LS193
.69
74LS670
.89
74LS90
.39
74LS194
.69
74LS682
3.20
74LS92
.49
74LS195
.69
74LS688
2.40
74LS93
.39
74LS196
.59
74LS783
22.95
74LS95
.49
74LS197
.59
25LS2521
2.80
74LS107
.34
74LS221
.59
26LS31
1.95
.74LS109
.36
74LS240
.69
26LS32
1.95
r
7400 SERIES LOGIC
7400
74121
.29
74F240
1.29
7400
.19
74123
.49
74S00
.29
7402
.19
74125
.45
74S02
.29
7404
.19
74150
1.35
74S04
.29
7406
.29
74151
.55
74S08
.35
7407
.29
74153
.55
74S10
.29
7408
.24
74154
1.49
74S32
.35
7410
.19
74157
.55
74S74
.49
7411
.25
74159
1.65
74S86
.35
7414
.49
74161
.69
74S112
.50
7416
.25
74164
.85
74S124
2.75
7417
.25
74166
1.00
74S138
.79
7420
.19
74175
.89
74S153
.79
7430
.19
74367
.65
74S157
.79
7432
7438
.29
.29
74F/74S
74S158
74S163
.95
1.29
7442
.49
74F00
.35
74S175
.79
7445
.69
74F02
.35
74S195
1.49
7447
.89
74F04
.35
74S240
1.49
7473
.34
74F08
.35
74S241
1.49
7474
.33
74F10
.35
74S244
1.49
7475
.45
74F32
.35
74S280
1.95
7476
.35
74F64
.55
74S287
1.69
7483
.50
74F74
.39
74S288
1.69
7485
.59
74F86
.55
74S299
2.95
7586
.35
74F138
.79
74S373
1.69
7489
2.15
74F139
.79
74S374
1.69
7490
.39
74F253
.89
74S471
4.95
7493
L _
.35
74F157
.89
74S571
2.95
JDR MICRODEVICES AND THE JDR MICRODEVICES LOGO ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF JDR MICRODEVICES. IBM. AT. PS/2 ARE TRADEMARKS OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES.
BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 6 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS: 7)
* CRYSTALS
32.768 KHz
.95
1.0 MHz
2.95
1.8432
2.95
2.0
1.95
2.4576
1.95
3.579545
1.95
4.0
1.95
5.0
1.95
5.0688
1.95
6.0
1.95
6.144
1.95
8.0
1.95
10.0
1.95
10.738635
1.95
12.0
1.95
14.31818
1.95
16.0
1.95
18.0
1.95
18.432
1.95
20.0
1.95
k 22.1184
1.95 J
r OSCILLATORS 1
1.0MHz
5.95
1.8432
5.95
2.0
5.95
2.4576
5.95
2.5
5.95
4.0
4.95
5.0
4.95
5.0688
4.95
6.0
4.95
6.144
4.95
8.0
4.95
10.0
4.95
12.0
4.95
14.31818
1.95
15.0
1.95
16.0
4.95
18.432
4.95
20.0
4.95
24.0
L _
4.95
_ J-
r misc.
ADC0804
2.99
ADC0809
3.85
DAC0800
3.29
DAC0808
1.95
DAC1022
5.95
MC1408L8
1.95
8T28
1.29
8T97
.59
DP8304
2.29
9334
1.75
9368
2.85
9602
.69
ULN2003
.79
MAX232
7.95
MC3470
1.95
MC3487
2.95
AY5-3600
L PRO
11.95 J
POWER SUPPLIES
APPLE TYPE SUPPLY
m WITH APPLE CONNECTOR
m +5V @ 6A, +12V @ 3A,
-5V@ 1A, -12V @1A
PS-A $49.£
FLOPPY DRIVE SUPPLY
M +5V @ 2.5A, +12V @ 2A,
-12V @ .1 A
a +5V <§> 5A, IF +12 NOT USED
PS-ASTEC $24.{
WIREWRAP
PROTOTYPE CARDS
FR-4 EPOXY GLASS LAMINATE WITH GOLD PLATED EDGE-
CARD FINGERS AND SILK SCREENED LEGENDS
r DISK 3
CONTROLLERS
1771
4.95
1791
9.95
1793
9.95
1795
12.95
1797
12.95
2791
19.95
2793
19.95
2797
29.95
8272
4.39 |
UPD765
4.39
MB8876
12.95
MB8877
12.95
1691
6.95
L 2143
6.95 J
INTERSIL
ICL7107
10.95
ICL7660
1.99
ICL8038
3.85
ICM7207A
5.95
ICM7208
15.95
CLOCK CIRCUITS
MC146818
5.95
MM58167
9.95
MM58174
9.95
MXM5832
2.95
g S
36 WATT POWER SUPPLY
a +5V @2.5A, + 12V @1.5A
a 3 PIN INPUT. 6 PIN OUTPUT
a SELECTABLE 110V-220V
PS-3045 $12.9
144 WATT MICRO SUPPLY
a +5V @ 18A, +12V @ 4A.
•12V @ 500MA
PS-1554 S29.9
JDR-PR1
FOR XT
WITH +5V AND GROUND PLANE
mss
27.95
JDR-PR2
AS ABOVE WITH 10 DECODING LAYOUT29.95
JDR-PR32
FOR PS/2
32 BIT PROTOTYPE CARD
69.95
JDR-PR16
16 BIT WITH I/O DECODING LAYOUT
49.95
JDR-PR16PK PARTS KIT FOR JDR-PR16 ABOVE
15.95
JDR-PR16V
16 BIT FOR VIDEO APPLICATIONS
39.95
JDR-PR10
FOR AT
16BIT WITH I/O DECODING LAYOUT
34.95
JDR-PRIOpk parts kit for jdr-prio above
12.95
J
AY5-1013 3.
AY3-1015 4.
TR1602 3.
r — ^
VOLTAGE REGULATORS
7805T
.49
781 2K
1.39
7808T
.49
7905K
1.69
781 2T
.49
7912K
1.49
781 5T
.49
78L05
.49
7905T
.59
78L12
.49
7908T
.59
79L05
.69
7912T
.59
79L12
1.49
791 5T
.59
LM323K
3.49
7805K
1.59
LM338K
4.49 ,
FULL 1 YEAR
WARRANTY ON
EVERY PRODUCT!
EXTENDER CAROS
FOR PROTOTYPE DEBUGGING.
TESTING AND TROUBLESHOOTING
EXT-8088 XT COMPATIBLE 29.95
EXT-80286 AT COMPATIBLE 39.95
E XT-16 MICROCHANNEL 16 BIT 69.95
EXT-32 MICROCHANNEL 32-BIT 99.95
r BYPASS CAPACITORS^
.01 UF
CERAMIC DISC
100 5.00
.OIUF-MONO
MONOLITHIC
100/10.00
.1UF
CERAMIC DISC
100 6.50
^.1UF-MONO
MONOLITHIC
100/1 2.50 j
BIT RATE GENERATORS^
MC1441
19.95
COM5016
16.95
BR1941
4.95
COM8116
8.95
L 4702
9.95
MM5307
4.95 j
SOLDER STATION
a HEAT SETTING ADJUSTS
a TIP TEMPERATURE
READOUT
a REPLACEMENT TIPS
AVAILABLE @ $2.95
168-2C
“SNAP ABLE”
- 1
HEADERS
SNAP APART TO MAKE ANY SIZE
HEADER. ALL WITH . 1 ~ CENTERS
1x40
STRAIGHT LEAD
.99
1x40
RIGHT ANGLE LEAD
.49
2x40
STRAIGHT LEAD
2.49
2x40
RIGHT ANGLE LEAD
2.99
rN^|
- 1
SOLDERLESS
pH* BREADBOARDS
WBU-204-3
1360 TIE PTS
12.95
WBU-204
1660 TIE PTS
19.95
WBU-206
2390 TIE PTS
24.95
WBU-208
3220 TIE PTS
34.95
IDC COI\ll\IECTORS/RIBBOI\l CABLE
DESCRIPTION
ORDER BY
(
CONTACTS
10 f 20
o
o
LD
SOLDER HEADER
IDHxxS
.82 1.29
1.68 2.20 2.58 3.24
RIGHT ANGLE SOLDER HEADER
IDHxxSR
.85 ' 1.35
1.76 2.31 2.72 ’ 3.39 i
WIREWRAP HEADER
IDHxxW
1.86 2.98
3.84 4.50 5.28 6.63
RIGHT ANGLE WIREWRAP HEADER
IDHxxWR
2.05 3.28
4.22 4.45 4.80 7.30 '
RIBBON HEADER SOCKET
IDSxx
.63 .89
.95 1.29 1.49 1.69
RIBBON HEADER
IDMxx
- TS.50
6.25 7.00 ' 7.50 8.50
RIBBON EDGE CARD
IDExx
.85 1.25
1.35* 1.75 1 2.05 * 2.45 '
10‘ PLASTIC RIBBON CABLE
RCxx
1.60 3.20
4.10 ' 5.40 6.40 7.50
EPROM ERASERS
SPE CT RON ICS CORPORATION
Model
Timer
# of
Chips
lintensity
(uW/Cm2) 1
Unit
Cost
PE- 140
NO
9
8,000 i
$89
PE-140T
YES
9
8,000
$139
PE-240T
YES
12
9.600 1
$189
FOR ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS. SEE D SUBMINIATURE CONNECTORS BELOW
D-SUBMINIATURE CONNECTORS
OATARASE II S3S.S5
a SHIRT POCKT SIZE! a ERASES
MOST EPROMS EPLD'S IN 3 MINUTES
a ALL SIZES UP TO 4 AT A TIME
DATARASE II
DESCRIPTlOh
ORDER BY
CONTACTS
9
15
19
25
37 _
50
CAI nco IQ
MALE
DBxxP
.45
.59
.69 .
.69
1.35
1.85
SULUhH LUr
FEMALE
DBxxS
.49
.69
.75
.75
1.39
2.29
RIGHT ANGLE
MALE
DBxxPR
.49 ‘
.69
.79
2.27
PC SOLDER
FEMALE
DBxxSR
.55 '
.75
.85
2.49'
WIREWRAP
MALE
DBxxPWW
? 1.69*
2.56
3.89
5.60 '
FEMALE
‘ DBxxSWW
1 2.76'
4.27
6.84
9.95'
IDC RIBBON CABLE
MALE
IDBxxP
1.39'
1.99
2.25
4.25 '
FEMALE
IDBxxS
1.45'
2.05
2.35
4.49 '
HOODS
METAL
’ MHOODxx
1.05'
1.15
125’
1.25
1 - I
noncDin/? ikicToi tr'TtrMt
PLASTfC
HOODxx
.39 '
.39
L~ I
.39
.69 '
.75
INSERT THE NUMBER OF CONTACTS IN THE POSITION MARKED “xx~
PART NUMBER LISTED EXAMPLE A 15 PIN RIGHT ANGLE MALE PC
DB15PR MOUNTING HARDWARE 59t
OF THE ORDER BY ’
SOLDER WOULD BE
LITHIUM BATTERY
LONG-LASTING 6 VOLT
BATTERY FOR 286 AND , . - ,
386 PCS MOUNTS JUST ' j
ABOUT ANYWHERE! -
a MOTHERBOARD
CONNECTOR
■ ADHESIVE VELCRO
MOUNTING STRIP
LITHIUM 6.8V 11.95
PCSOLOERLESS
BREADBOARDS
a 62 CLEARLY LABELLED BUS LINES
• ACCEPTS UP TO 24 14-PIN ICS
a 1940 TIE POINTS a EXTERNAL
FEMALE DB25 D-SUB CONNECTOR
UP-604 $49.95
GENDER CHANGERS
GENDER-FF FEMALE-FEMALE 7.95
GENDER-MM MALE-MALE 7.95
GENDER-MF male-female 7.95
GENDER-NM NULL MODEM 8.95
GENDER-JB JUMPER BOX 8.95
GENDER-MT MINITESTER 14.95
GENDER-VGA DB9-DB15 19.95
GENDER-9-25 DB9-DB25 4.95
r -
RS-B3B
BREAKOUT BOX
FOR TROUBLESHOOTING
SERIAL COMMUNICATIONS
1
%
a OPEN/CLOSE INDIVIDUAL
CIRCUITS
f
a 20 JUMPERS CROSS¬
}* S&r1 ? ,
CONNECT ANY 2 '■ $§
CIRCUITS
*S3R3BB
■ 10 LEDS SHOW -
••♦*♦*£#*•* \
CIRCUIT ACTIVITY 4
GENDER-BO 34.95
* TSv
_ J
JDR MICRODEVICES, 110 KNOWLES DRIVE , LOS GATOS, CA 95030
LOCAL (408) 866-6200 FAX (408) 378-8927 TELEX 171-110
RETAIL STORE: 1256 SOUTH BASCOM AVE., SAN JOSE, CA (408) 947-8881
HOURS: M-F 9-7 SAT. 9-5 SUN. 12-4
Terms: Minimum order $10. For shipping and handling include $3.50 for
ground and $4.50 air. Orders over 1 lb and foreign orders may require
additional shipping charges— please contact the sales department for the
amount. CA residents must include applicable sales tax. Prices subject
to change without notice. We are not responsible for typographical errors.
We reserve the right to limit quantities and to substitute manufacturer.
All merchandise subject to prior sales. A full copy of our terms is available
upon request. Items pictured may only be representative
MEMBER
essr—-^.-
ORDER TOLL FREE 000-530-5000
COPYRIGHT 1989 JDR MICRODEVICES
Circle 6 on Reader Service Card ( DEALERS : 7)
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 341
MMC
MICROCOMPUTER
MARKETING COUNCIL
0* the Drect Markeing Assooauon Inc
^ ^ ^ w me ureci rvi»^eL»Tg
Microdevices
30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE • 1 YEAR WARRANTY ON ALL PRODUCTS • TOLL-FREE TECHNICAL SUPPORT
COMPLETE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION • SUPERIOR SERVICE • FRIENDLY. KNOWLEDGEABLE SALES STAFF
HIGH RESOLUTION BUS MOUSE FOR BETTER RESPONSE
AND LESS HAND MOVEMENT. IDEAL FOR CAD WORK
■ 320 DPI a INCLUDES DRIVER. TEXT EDITOR & POP-UP
MENUS a NO PAD. POWER SUPPLY OR PORT REQUIRED
LOGITECH 3-BUTTON MOUSE
PC MAGAZINE EDITORS CHOICE! ALL MODELS HAVE
SERIAL SUPPORT (COM1/COM2), 200 D.P.I. RESOLUTION,
LOTUS 1 2 3 SHELL. SELF INSTALLING SOFTWARE AND
'POINT EDITOR"
LMOUSE $79.95
LMOUSE-P SERIAL MOUSE W/LOGIPAINT $99.95
LMOUSE-BP BUS MOUSE W/LOGIPAINT $99.95
LMOUSE-BPBL BUS MOUSE W/PUBLISHER PKG$1 39.95
LMOUSE-BPC BUS MOUSE W/LOGIPAINT/CAD $1 49.95
OF! HANDY SCANNER
400 DPI
ALL HANDY SCANNERS
ARE NOT THE SAME!
a INSTANTLY SCANS UP
TO 4" WIDE IMAGES
a 100. 200. 300. 400 DPI
BOTH DIRECTIONS
a B&W AND 3 HALF TONE
MODES
a HERCULES. CGA AND EGA COMPATIBLE
a INCLUDES HALO DPE AND IMAGE EDITOR SOFTWARE
HS-3000
a AUTO DIAL/ ANSWER
a SELF TEST ON POWER UP
a FULL OR HALF DUPLEX
a TOUCHTONE OR PULSE DIALING
a HAYES & BELL SYSTEMS COMPATIBLE
a MIRROR II COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE INCLUDED
PRO-241 $129.95
PRO-121 1200 BAUD 1/2 CARD $69.95
PRO-24M 2400 BAUD FOR PS/2 $249.95
EXTERNAL ROOD BAUD
a 2400/1200/300 HAYES COMPATIBLE
a 8 EASY-TO-READ STATUS LED'S
a CALL PROGRESS MONITORING & ADJUSTABLE VOLUME
a 2ND PHONE JACK FOR VOICE COMMUNICATIONS
a REQUIRES SERIAL PORT & CABLE (OPTIONAL)
PRO-24E $169.95
PRO-1 2E 1200 BAUD EXTERNAL $99.95
APPLE! MACINTOSH MODEMS
MACINTOSH 2400 BAUD EXTERNAL AS ABOVE WITH
CABLE AND PROCOM-M SOFTWARE.
PRO-24EM $199.95
PRO-24 A APPLE II 2400 BAUD MODEM $179.95
PRO-1 2 A APPLE II 1 200 BAUD MODEM $1 39.95
$1B9as
INTERNAL BAOO BAUD
POCKET MODEM
CVC
o
YOU'LL NEVER « W
BE FAR FROM YOUR Wife
DATA WITH THIS 6 OUNCE “ &
HAND HELD POCKET MODEM i
a 1200/300 BAUD a BATTERY & AC POWER
a SERIAL INTERFACE (DB25) a 4 STATUS INDICATORS
GVC-12P
^ GVC-24P 2400 BAUD VERSION _ $249.95 ^
TACTILE FEEDBACK MAXI-SWITCH
MAX-5339 ENHANCED STYLE (SHOWN) $84.95
MAX-5060 84 KEY LAYOUT $64.95
BTC ENHANCED STYLE LAYOUT
a AUTOSENSE FOR XT OR AT COMPATIBLES
a LED INDICATORS a AUTO REPEAT FEATURE
a SEPARATE CURSOR PAD
BTC-5339 $79.95
BTC 04 KEY LAYOU1
a SOFTWARE AUTOSENSE FOR XT OR AT COMPATIBLES
a LED INDICATORS a AUTO REPEAT
BTC-5060 $59.95
BTC AUDIBLE 44 CLICK ” KEYBOARD
a ENHANCED STYLE. 101 KEY KEYBOARD
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/ \
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CBL-PRINTER PC PRINTER CABLE $9.95
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CBL-DB25-MM DB25 MALE TO DB25 MALE $9.95
CBL-DB25-MF DB25 MALE TO DB25 FEMALE $9.95
CBL-9-SERIAL 9 PIN TO 25 PIN SERIAL $6.95
CBL-KBD-EXT KEYBOARD EXTENSION $7.95
CBL-CNT-MM 36 PIN CENTRONICS-M/M $14.95
CBL-HD-20 20 PIN HARD DISK CABLE $3.95
CBL-HD-34 34 PIN HARD DISK CABLE $4.95
CBL-HD-34D 34 PIN DUAL HARD DISK $6.95
CBL-FDC-EXT 37 PIN EXTERNAL FLOPPY $9.95
CBL-MNT-9 9 PIN MONITOR EXTENSION $6.95
CBL-MODEM DB25 TO DB25 FEMALE $7.95
UPRIGHT CASE
$34.95
$39.95
$89.95
$59.95
$149.95
SLEEK UPRIGHT DESIGN SAVES
SPACE. ADDS STYLE!
a ACCOMODATES ALL
SIZES OF MOTHERBOARDS
a 250 W POWER SUPPLY
INCLUDED
a MOUNTS FOR 3 FLOPPY
& 4 HARD DRIVES
a TURBOS RESET SWITCH
a SPEED DISPLAY. POWER
S DISK LED'S
a INCL. MOUNTING HARDWARE.
FACEPLATES S SPEAKER
CASE-100
CASE-FLIP FOR 8088 MOTHERBOARDS
CASE-SLIDE FOR 8088 MOTHERBOARDS
CASE-70 FOR 286 MOTHERBOARDS
CASE-50 FOR 8088 OR 286 BOARDS
CASE-JR MINI-286 W/POWER SUPPLY
VGA COMPATIBLE
PACKAGE ma-saa
a 800 X 560
MAXIMUM
RESOLUTION
a 640 X 480 IN
16 COLORS
■ 320 X 200 IN
256 COLORS
a IBM STYLE
ANALOG
MONITOR
a FULLY VGA. EGA.
CGA. HERCULES
S MONOCHROME
COMPATIBLE
VGA-PKG
NEC MULTISYNC II $593.35
a AUTO FREQ ADJUSTMENT a RESOLUTION AS HIGH AS
800 X560 a TEXT MODE & TEXT COLOR a INCL. ADAPTOR
NEC-MULTI
JOR MULTI
$499.95
a FULL FEATURED MULTISCAN MONITOR WITH UNLIMITED
COLORS ■HIGH RESOLUTION. 14" NON GLARE DISPLAY
a AUTO SWITCHING ■ TTL'ANALOG VIDEO INPUT
JDR-MULTI
RELISYSEGA $399.95
a 800X560 MAXIMUM RESOLUTION* .31 MM DOT PITCH
a 14" BLACK MATRIX SCREEN* 16 COLORS SWIVEL BASE
EGA-MONITOR _
I EGA SPECIAL - SA VE $60! i
BUY THE RELISYS EGA AND THE MCT EGA CARD TOGETHER
AND SAVE $60.00 JUST $489.00
RGB MONITOR $B79.95
a COLOR/GREEN/AMBER SWITCH* 41MM DOT PITCH
■ 640 X 240 RESOLUTION* 14" NON-GLARE SCREEN
■ TILT AND SWIVEL BASE
RGB-MONITOR
FLAT SCREEN $139.95
a LOW DISTORTION 14" GLARE -RESISTANT AMBER SCREEN
■ 720 X 350 MAXIMUM RESOLUTION ■ IBM COMPATIBLE
TTL INPUT* SWIVEL BASE
GM-1488
MONO-SAMSUNG WITH 12" SCREEN $129.95
TILT & SWIVEL MONITOR STANDS
MS-100 $12.95
MS-200 5 OUTLETS AND SURGE SUPPRESSOR $39.95
POWER SUPPLIES
ALL OUR POWER SUPPLIES ARE UL APPROVED. 1 10/220V.
PS-1 35 IBM XT COMPATIBLE. 135 WATTS $59.95
PS-1 50 IBM XT COMPATIBLE. 1 50 WATTS $69.95
PS-200 IBM AT COMPATIBLE. 200 WATTS $89.95
342 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 6 on Reader Service Card ( DEALERS : 7)
a ULTRA HIGH DENSITY
■ ALSO WORKS WITH 720K DISKS ' ' § *
FDD-1. 44X BLACK FACEPLATE
FDD-1 .44A BEIGE FACEPLATE *
FDD-SOFT SOFTWARE DRIVER $19.95
1/S HEIGHT FLOPPY DISK DRIVES
FD-55B 5-1/4" TEAC DS/DD360K $9
FD-55G 5-1/4" TEAC DS/HD 1.2M $12
M2551A 5-1/4" FUJITSU DS/DD360K $8
M2553K 5-1/4" FUJITSU DS/HD 1 2M $1 1
FDD-360 5-1/4" DS/DD360K $6
FDD-1.2 5-1/4" DS/HD 1.2M $10
$900
m 1 6 MHZ PROCESSOR REPLACES 8088
M 1 MB MEMORY INSTALLED
m EXPAND TO 3 MB WITH PIGGYBACK CARD
a 5 YEAR WARRANTY
PCIB 1200
PIGGYBACK MEMORY BOARDS
PCIB1210 I MB INSTALLED $649.00
PCIB1 220 2 MB INSTALLED $1 1 95.00
DISKETTES
N-MD2D BOX OF 10 5-1/4" 360K DS/DD $6.95
N-MD2H BOX OF 10 5-1/4" 1.2 MB DS/HD $13.95
N-3.5DS BOX OF 10 3-1/2" 720K DS/DD $16.95
N-3.5HD BOX OF 10 3-1/2" 1.44 MB DS/HD $49.95
N-MD2D BULK 360K DS/DD (MIN. 50 DISKS) EA. 49c
TAPE BACK-UP DRIVES
AR5240X ARCHIVE TAPE DRIVE -XT'S & AT'S
AR5540A FASTER TAPE DRIVE -AT'S ONLY
AR340 40 MB TAPE CARTRIDGES
$369.95
$369.95
$24.95
DRIVE ACCESSORIES
FD-ARAIL MTG RAILS FOR AT COMPATIBLE
FD-55MHW HALF-HEIGHT MOUNTING HARDWARE
FD-5Y Y-POWER ADAPTOR FOR DRIVES
FD55P BEIGE FACEPLATE FOR TEAC DRIVES
$2.95
$2.95
$2.95
$2.95
1.44 MB 3 Vs" DRIVE
MF355X 3
MF355A 3
FDD-3.5X 3
FDD-3. 5A 3
1/2" MITSUBISHI 1.44MB (BLACK) $129.95
1/2" MITSUBISHI 144MB (BEIGE) $129.95
1/2" DS/DD 720K (BLACK) $97.95
1/2" DS/DD 720K (BEIGE) $97.95
INBOARD 3 BE /PC
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Circle 6 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS: 7)
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 343
EPROM
PROGRAMMER
$1^095
BUILD YOUR OWN SYSTEM
m PROGRAMS 27XX AND 27XXX EPROMS UP TO 27512
m SUPPORTS VARIOUS PROGRAMMING FORMATS &
VOLTAGES
a SPLIT OR COMBINE CONTENTS OF SEVERAL EPROMS
OF DIFFERENT SIZES
a READ. WRITE. COPY. ERASE CHECK & VERIFY
a SOFTWARE FOR HEX AND INTEL HEX FORMATS
OVER 20,000 JDR SYSTEMS HA VE ALREADY
BEEN BUILT. EASY TO ASSEMBLE IN JUST 2
HOURS WITH A SCREWDRIVER.
IB MHz MINI-BBG $1B3B. 75
a 12 MHZ MINI-206 MOTHERBOARD a 512K RAM MEMORY
a MINI AT CASE WITH POWER SUPPLY
a 84 KEY KEYBOARD 0 MONOCHROME MONITOR
a 1 2 MB FLOPPY DRIVE 0 FLOPPY / HARD CONTROL
0 GRAPHICS ADAPTOR
W MHz TURBO BOBB $501.00
a INCLUDES SERIAL PORT. 2 PARALLEL PORTS. CLOCK/
CALENDAR AND GAME ADAPTOR 0 RUNS COLOR
GRAPHICS ON A MONOCHROME MONITOR
0 MOTHERBOARD 0 256K RAM MEMORY 0 135 WATT
POWER SUPPLY 0 FLIP TOP CASE 0 84 KEY KEYBOARD
0 360K FLOPPY DRIVE 0 MONOGRAPHICS I/O CARD
0 MONOCHROME MONITOR
l\IEW! MODULAR PROGRAMMING SYSTEM
THE IDEAL SYSTEM FOR DEVELOPERS; AN INTEGRATED MODULAR SYSTEM THAT EXPANDS
AS YOUR NEEDS GROW. ALL THE MODULES USE A COMMON HOST ADAPTOR CARD SO YOU
NEED JUST ONE SLOT TO PROGRAM EPROMS, PROMS , PALS AND MORE.
HOST ADAPTOR CARD SB*
a A UNIVERSAL INTERFACE FOR ALL THE PROGRAM¬
MING MODULES
0 USER SELECTABLE PROGRAMMABLE ADDRESSES
PREVENT ADDRESSING CONFLICTS
0 INCLUDES MENU-DRIVEN SOFTWARE PACKAGE
0 INCLUDES MOLDED CABLE
MCT-MAC
UNIVERSAL
MODULE
$493.99
EPROM MODULE $113.35
a PROGRAMS 24-32 PIN EPROMS. CMOS EPROMS AND
EEPROMS FROM 16K TO 1024K
0 HEX TO OBJ CONVERTER
0 AUTO. BLANK CHECK/PROGRAM/VERIFY
0 VPP 5. 12 5. 12.75. 13. 21 & 25 VOLTS
0 NORMAL. INTELLIGENT. INTERACTIVE. & QUICK PULSE
PROGRAMMING ALGORITHMS
MCT-MEP
MCT-MEP-4 FOUR-EPROM PROGRAMMER $169.95
MCT-MEP-8 EIGHT EPROM PROGRAMMER $259.95
MCT-MEP-16 SIXTEEN EPROM PROGRAMMER $499.95
DIGITAL 1C MODULE $1BE
a TESTS TTL. CMOS. DYNAMIC S STATIC RAM
0 AUTO SEARCH FOR UNKNOWN PART NUMBERS
0 USER-PROGRAMMABLE TEST PROCEDURES
MCT-MIC
PAL MODULE SB43.35
a PROGRAMS MMI. NS. Tl 20 & Tl 24 PIN DEVICES
0 BLANK CHECK. PROGRAM, AUTO. READ MASTER.
VERIFY & SECURITY FUSE BLOW
MCT-MPL
PAL PROGRAMMING DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE
MCT-MPL-SOFT $99.95
0 PROGRAMS EPROMS. EEPROMS. PALS. BI POLAR
PROMS. 8748 & 8751 SERIES DEVICES
0 PROGRAMS 1 6V8 & 20V8 GALS (GALLIUM ARSENIDE)
FROM LATTICE. NS, SGS
0 TESTS TTL. CMOS, DYNAMIC & STATIC RAMS
0 LOAD DISK, SAVE DISK, EDIT, BLANK CHECK.
PROGRAM. AUTO, READ MASTER. VERIFY & COMPARE
0 TEXTOOL SOCKET ACCEPTS .3 TO .6" WIDE IC'S FROM
8 40 PINS
MCT-MUP
874B MODULE $173.35
a PROG. 8741 . 8742. 8748. 8749 & 8750 EPROMS &
PROMS
0 LOAD DISK, SAVE DISK, EDIT. BLANK CHECK.
PROGRAM. AUTO. READ MASTER. VERIFY & COMPARE
0 NORMAL & INTELLIGENT PROGRAMMING ALGORITHMS
MCT-MMP
B I -POLAR MODULE $B53.35
a PROG AMD. MMI. NS. Tl & SIGNETICS BI POLAR PROMS
0 LOAD DISK. SAVE DISK. EDIT. BLANK CHECK.
PROGRAM. AUTO. READ MASTER. VERIFY
MCT-MBP
MOTHERBOARDS
TURBO 4.77IB MHz *99. 9S
0 XT COMPATIBLE 0 NORTON SI 1 7 0 4.77 OR 8 MHZ
OPERATION WITH 8088 2 AND OPTION AL 8087 2 CO
PROCESSOR 0 FRONT PANEL LED SPEED INDICATOR
AND RESET SWITCH SET SUPPORTED 0 CHOOSE
NORMAL/TURBO MODE OR SOFTWARE SELECT
PROCESSOR SPEED
MCT-TURBO
MCT-XMB STANDARD MOTHERBOARD $87.95
lO MHz SINGLE CHIP $1B3. 35
0 XT COMPATIBLE 0 NORTON SI 2.1 0 USES LESS
POWER. IMPROVES RELIABILITY 0 KEY SELECTABLE
SPEED. 4 77 MHZ OR 10 MHZ 0 2.3 TIMES FASTER THAN
A STANDARD 0 RESET SWITCH. KEYLOCK. & SPEED /
POWER INDICATORS SUPPORTED
MCT-TURBO-10
BOBB6 GUO MHz $373.
a AT COMPATIBLE 0 LANDMARK AT SPEED10 MHZ
0 NORTON SI 10.3 0 8 SLOTS (TWO 8-BIT, SIX 16-
BIT) 0 HARDWARE SELECTION OF 6 OR 10 MHZ
0 FRONT PANEL LED INDICATOR 0 SOCKETS FOR
1MB OF RAM AND 80287 0 ONE WAIT STATE
0 BATTERY BACKED CLOCK 0 KEYLOCK
SUPPORTED 0 RESET SWITCH
MCT-286
IB MHz MINI-BB6 $333.35
a AT COMPATIBLE 0 LANDMARK AT SPEED 13.2 MHZ
0 NORTON SI 1 1.6 0 6 MHZ. 10 MHz (0/1 WAIT STATE).
12 MHZ (1 WAIT STATE) 0 ZYMOS ASICS FOR FEWER
CHIPS, GREATER RELIABILITY 0 SUPPORTS 512K-1024K
MEMORY 0 RECHARGEABLE HIGH CAPACITY NI-CAD
BATTERY 0 SIX 16-BIT SLOTS. TWO 8-BIT SLOTS
0 MOUNTS IN STANDARD XT CASE
MCT-M286-12
MCT-M286 6 10 MHZ MINI 80286 BOARD $389.95
MCT-EPROM
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LOCAL (408) 866-6200 FAX (408) 378-8927 TELEX 171-110
RETAIL STORE: 1256 SOUTH BASC0M AVE., SAN JOSE, CA (408) 947-8881
HOURS: M-F 9-7 SAT. 9-5 SUN. 12-4
0 9 PIN DOT MATRIX PRINT HEAD
0 180 CPS DRAFT MODE. 29 CPS NLQ MODE
0 CENTRONICS PARALLEL INTERFACE. SERIAL
OPTIONAL
0 DUAL PITCH. DOUBLESTRIKE, ITALICS & SUPERSCRIPT
0 DOT ADDRESSABLE GRAPHICS IN SIX DENSITIES
0 COMPRESSED. EXPANDED AND EMPHASIZES PRINT
RC-180D
SPECIAL ENDS 3/31/89
Terms: Minimum order $10. For shipping and handling include $3.50 for
ground and $4.50 air. Orders over 1 lb and foreign orders may require
additional shipping charges— please contact the sales department for the
amount. CA residents must include applicable sales tax. Prices subject to
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We reserve the right to limit quantities and to substitute manufacturer.
All merchandise subject to prior sales. A full copy of our terms is
available upon request. Items pictured may only be representative.
ORDER TOLL FREE 800-533-5000
BARGAIN HUNTER'S CORNER
CITIZEN 4<_„g5
PRINTER *1G9 35
a 9 PIN DOT MATRIX PRINT HEAD
0 180 CPS DRAFT MODE. 29 CPS NLQ MODE
0 CENTRONICS PARALLEL INTERFACE. SERIAL
OPTIONAL
0 DUAL PITCH. DOUBLESTRIKE, ITALICS & SUPERSCRIPT
0 DOT ADDRESSABLE GRAPHICS IN SIX DENSITIES
0 COMPRESSED. EXPANDED AND EMPHASIZES PRINT
RC-180D
SPECIAL ENDS 3/31/89
COPYRIGHT 1989 JDR MICRODEVICES
CONTINENTAL U.S.
344 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
Circle 6 on Reader Service Card (DEALERS: 7)
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Editorial Index by Company
Index of companies covered in articles, columns, or news stories in this issue
Each reference is to the first page of the article or section in which the company name appears
INQUIRY # COMPANY
PAGE
INQUIRY ft COMPANY PAGE
INQUIRY tt COMPANY PAGE
A
CREO PRODUCTS .
,274
M
1109
ABAIRE INFORMATION
1059
CYPRESS
MANUFACTURING AND
SERVICES .
. 65
SEMICONDUCTOR .
,245
CONSULTING SERVICES ..
255
1115
ACCEL TECHNOLOGIES .
. 65
1041
MANX SOFTWARE
1037
ADDISON-WESLEY
D
SYSTEMS .
170
PUBLISHING .
.51,97
DIGITAL EQUIPMENT . . 229, 255
1024
MAXIMUM STORAGE .
121
1141
ADVANCED LOGIC
DIGITAL RESEARCH .
...11
MAXTOR . 11,293
RESEARCH .
. 65
DORSET HOUSE
MEDIAGENIC .
..11
1058
ADVANCED MICRO
PUBLISHING .
...51
1042
METAWARE .
170
DEVICES .
11,245
DTK .
. 157
1110
MICRO DATA BASE
AMERICAN ELECTRONICS
1106
DYNAMIC COMPUTER
SYSTEMS .
..65
ASSOCIATION .
. 11
PRODUCTS .
. 151
1035
MICRO SOLUTIONS .
..97
AMERICAN MEGATRENDS ... 1 1
1043
MICROSOFT . 11,65, 170,
AMI .
.... 157
E
1055
205,229
983
APOLLO COMPUTER .
...229,
ELECTRONIC ARTS .
...11
1108
235, 255
1117
ENGINEERING SOFTWARE
...65
1104
MICROSOFT PRESS .
151
1102
APPLE COMPUTER . 11, 113,
EPYX .
...11
1023
MINDSCAPE .
139
1103
151,229,293
1064
MIPS COMPUTER
1105
F
SYSTEMS .
245
1151
ARISTOTLE INDUSTRIES
. 65
1136
FIFTH GENERATION
MIT .
..11
1022
ASHTON-TATE . 139,211,217
SYSTEMS .
...65
860
MITSUBISHI ELECTRONICS
1065
1113
FORESIGHT RESOURCES . . .
...65
AMERICA . 11,
189
1066
FORMALSOFT .
...11
1036
MORTICE KERN SYSTEMS . .
..97
1032
ASIACOM .
.... 121
1062
MOTOROLA . 11,245,
251
AT&T .
....267
G
ATHENA SYSTEMS .
. 11
GADGETS BY SMALL .
...11
N
1129
AUTOMATED DESIGN .
. 65
1150
GCC TECHNOLOGIES .
...65
NATIONAL ENGINEERS
AWARD .
.... 157
1122
GENESIS DATA SYSTEMS ...
...65
WEEK .
,..11
1025
GTA .
. 121
1154
NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS . .
..65
B
984
NEXT . 235,
293
BANYAN SYSTEMS .
....229
H
NMB TECHNOLOGIES .
..11
BECHTEL .
....255
1163
HAYES MICROCOMPUTER
981
NOVELL . 145,229
BERNOULLI OPTICAL
PRODUCTS .
...65
SYSTEMS .
....274
HEWLETT-PACKARD.... 11,229
O
1131
BIT SOFTWARE .
. 65
HITACHI .
...11
OLYMPUS OPTICAL .
...11
1040
BORLAND INTERNATIONAL
1134
HOGWARE .
...65
OPTOTECH .
..11
1056
11, 109, 170,205,283
1148
HYBRID FAX .
...65
1153
OPUS SYSTEMS .
..65
1067
I
P
C
1165
IBM . 65, 157,229,293
1028
PAUL MACE SOFTWARE .
, 121
1034
CAMBRIDGE NORTH
ICI IMAGEDATA .
.274
1029
PETER NORTON
AMERICA .
.... 121
1033
INTEL . 11, 121,245,251
COMPUTING .
. 121
1021
CANON U.S.A .
. 139
1060
PHOENIX .
, 157
CARVER MEAD AND
INTELLIGENT LIGHT .
.255
1152
PLUS DEVELOPMENT .
..65
ASSOCIATES .
. 11
1061
INTERGRAPH .
.245
PRENTICE-HALL .
..51
1144
CLUB AMERICAN
INTERNATIONAL
PRIME COMPUTER .
229
TECHNOLOGIES .
. 65
FOUNDATION FOR
1101
COLBY COMPUTERS .
. 151
THE SURVIVAL AND
Q
COMPAQ COMPUTER .
. 157
DEVELOPMENT OF
1026
QUARTERDECK OFFICE
1143
COMTEQ COMPUTER .
. 65
HUMANITY .
...11
SYSTEMS .
121
1132
CONNECT COMPUTER . . .
. 65
1126
QUOTRON SYSTEMS .
...65
1147
CONSOLIDATED COMPUTER
L
SYSTEMS .
. 65
1162
LANEX .
...65
R
CONTROL DATA .
. 293
1039
LANGUAGE SYSTEMS .
...97
1038
RAINBOW TECHNOLOGIES
..97
1031
COPIA INTERNATIONAL.
. 121
1164
LANTANA TECHNOLOGY . .
...65
RASTER TECHNOLOGIES ...
.255
346 BYTE* FEBRUARY 1989
INQUIRY # COMPANY PAGE
S
SANTA CRUZ OPERATION ... 229
SCIENTIFIC MICRO SYSTEMS . 1 1
SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY . 157
293
985 SILICON GRAPHICS.229, 235, 255
1 137 SITBACK TECHNOLOGIES . 65
1057 SLR SYSTEMS . 205
SOFTWARE PUBLISHERS
ASSOCIATION . 11
SOFTWARE SECURITY
SPECIAL INTEREST
GROUP . 11
1146 SONY MICROSYSTEMS . 65
SPECTRUM HOLOBYTE . 11
1114 SPSS . 65
1030 STERLING CASTLE
1107 SOFTWARE . 65, 121
986 SUN MICROSYSTEMS . 1 1 , 229
1063 235, 245, 255, 267, 293
SYBEX . 51
SYNAPTICS . 11
1 138 SYNTHETIC INTELLIGENCE . . 65
T
858 TANDY . 197
TEKTRONIX . 255
1121 TELECOM LIBRARY . 65
982 3COM . 145,229
1145 TOSHIBA AMERICA . 1 1 , 65
1149
1130 TRITON TECHNOLOGIES . 65
1027 TSR HUTCHINSON . 121
U
UNISYS . 293
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. . 1 1
1157 US VIDEO . 65
V
1050 V COMMUNICATIONS . 97
1128 VANO ASSOCIATES . 65
1142 VIDEO GRAPHIC SYSTEMS . . .65
W
W. H. FREEMAN . 51
W. W. NORTON . 51
1044 WATCOM . 170
WAVEFRONT . 255
WESTCON . 11
WESTERN DIGITAL . 11
Z
859 ZENITH DATA SYSTEMS . 189
1045 ZORTECH . 170
COMING UP IN BYTE
PRODUCTS IN PERSPECTIVE:
Leading off the March issue will be Microbytes, What’s New, and Short
Takes. Among the products scheduled for a look are an updated word
processor, a new debugger, a novel LAN, and a graphics package for the
Macintosh.
We’re planning a First Impression on several 80386SX machines, with
benchmarking and testing by the staff of the BYTE Lab.
March’s Product Focus will concentrate on the increasingly popular
category of large-screen monitors. Testing and analysis will again be done by
the BYTE Lab, and the article will include 12 units.
System reviews for March cover two new portables from Compaq and
Ogivar and the new Wells American Micro Channel AT.
In hardware reviews, we’ve focused our attention on a new group of floppy
disk drive controllers for the IBM PC. A second hardware review considers
new high-capacity hard disk drives for the Macintosh.
Software reviews will consider several new text editors, a new multitasking
operating system, and an applications development library for both the PC
and the Macintosh. An application review will cover a new database
management package, Superbase.
IN DEPTH:
Object-oriented programming
lanaguages and operating
systems will be the topic. We’ll
begin with a piece by David
Thomas on object-oriented
design and programming; cover
object-oriented user interfaces
with Charles Hughes, J. Michael
Moshell, and Mahesh Dodani
FEATURES:
Brett Glass goes Under the Hood
of high-performance memory
systems, Rick Grehan presents
part 3 in his series on trees ’n
keys, Dick Pountain describes
the programming language
Occam II, Fetchi Chen gives us
an inside look at the design of
PC-DOS 4.0, Jim Kerr
discusses Unix filenames for
MS-DOS, and Frank Hayes
compares the 80286 with the
80386 and both of those with the
80386SX.
(with a text box by Bruce
Blumberg on the NeXT object-
oriented environment); and wrap
up with Peter Wegner on object-
oriented languages.
FEBRUARY 1989 • BYTE 347
READER
SERVICE
To get further information on the products advertised in BYTE, fill out
the reader service card by circling the numbers on the card that cor¬
respond to the inquiry number listed with the advertiser. This index is
provided as an additional service by the publisher, who assumes no
liability for errors or omissions.
* Correspond directly with company.
Alphabetical Index to Advertisers
Inquiry No. Page No.
258 2001 SALES, INC . 152
8 A + L MEIER VOGT . 305
9 A + L MEIER VOGT . 307
26 A.C.P . 339
* ADOBE . 224,225
10 ADVANTAGE SOFTWARE ....287
11 AK SYSTEMS . 322
12 ALPHA PRODUCTS . 332,333
13 ALTEX ELECTRONICS . 324
14 AMERICAN SM. BUS. COMP. . . 138
* AMPRO . 126
27 A.N. WHOLESALE & RETAIL . . 322
15 ANNABOOKS . 338
* APPLIED COMPUTING SERV. . 209
16 ASHTON-TATE . 101
17 ASHTON-TATE . 101
18 ASHTON-TATE . 103
19 ASHTON-TATE . 103
20 ASHTON-TATE . 105
21 ASHTON-TATE . 105
* AST RESEARCH . 193
23 ATI TECHNOLOGIES . 93
24 ATRON . 64
28 B & B ELECTRONICS . 325
29 B & C MICROSYSTEMS . 327
30 B & C MICROSYSTEMS . 327
31 BASF . 141
32 BASF . 143
33 BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC . 43
34 BEST COMPUTER . 204
35 BEST COMPUTER . 204
* BINARY TECH . 322
36 BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING ... 30
* BIX . 271
450 BIX . 298,299
* BIX . 345
37 BLAISE . 33
38 BORLAND . 69
39 BORLAND . 69
40 BP MICROSYSTEMS . 322
41 BUFFALO PRODUCTS . 35
* BUYERS MART . 308-318
* BYTE BACK ISSUES . 318
* BYTE CIRCULATION . 282
* BYTE SUB. MESSAGE . 146
* BYTE SUB. MESSAGE . 306
* BYTE SUB. SERVICE . 202
43 BYTEK . 325
* BYTEWEEK/NEWSLETTER ... 221
44 C SOURCE . 187
45 CADAM . 95
46 CADAM . 95
* CALIFORNIA DIGITAL . 337
47 CALIFORNIA SOFTWARE . . . 322
48 CALIFORNIA SOFTWARE . . . 322
49 CAPITAL EQUIPMENT . 128
50 CAPITAL EQUIPMENT . 129
51 CARRIER CURRENT TECH .... 96
52 CARRIER CURRENT TECH .... 96
259 CLEARPOINT . 237
54 COEFFICIENT SYSTEMS . 46
55 COMPACT DISK PRODUCTS ... 60
56 COMPUCLASSICS . 250
57 COMPUCOM CORP . 54
58 COMPUSAVE . 323
60 COMPUTER FRIENDS . 44
61 COMPUTER MAIL ORDER . . 88,89
62 COMPUTER PROF.BOOK SOCTY. .. 281
63 COMPUTER SURPLUS STORE. 322
64 COMPUTERLANE UNLTD . 195
65 CONTECH COMPUTER CORP. 325
66 CONTROL VISION . 334
67 COVOX . 336
68 CYBER RESEARCH . 334
69 DATA TRANSLATION . 31
70 DATACODE.INC . 58
* DATAPRO . 254
71 DATAWORLD . 196
72 DATAWORLD . 196
* DAYTRON ELECTRONICS .... 334
Inquiry No. Page No.
73 DELL COMPUTER CORP. . . . CII.1
74 DELL COMPUTER CORP . 81
76 DISKCOTECH . 338
77 DISKETTE CONNECTION .... 325
78 DIVERSIFIED COMP. SYS. ...322
79 DTK . 228
80 DTK . 228
81 ECOSOFT . 213
82 EDCGMBH . 92
83 ELEXOR . 338
84 ELLIS COMPUTING, INC . 134
85 EMERSON COMPUTER POWER 16
86 EMERSON COMPUTER POWER 16
257 ENGINEERS COLLABORATIVE 336
87 EXECUTIVE PHOTO & SUPPLY 156
88 FIVESTAR COMPUTERS . . . 36,37
89 FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING .120
90 FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING .120
91 FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING . . 120
92 FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING .120
93 FOX SOFTWARE . 25
94 FTG DATA SYSTEMS . 334
95 GATEWAY 2000 . 87
96 GENOA . 75
97 GEYSER INFORMATICS . 108
98 GOLDEN BOW . 50
99 GRAFPOINT . 336
100 GTEKINC . 92
101 HAMMERLY . 61
102 HARD DRIVES INT’L . 203
103 HARD DRIVES INT’L . 203
104 HARRIS/3M . 288,289
105 HIGH RES TECHNOLOGIES . . 322
106 1C EXPRESS . 325
262 IEEE . 234
107 INMAC . 42
• INTECTRA . 325
108 INTEGRAND . 40
109 INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS . 7
110 INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS . 7
111 10 TECH . Ill
112 10 TECH . 338
113 ITAC SYSTEMS, INC . 130
115 JADE COMPUTER . 335
116 JAMECO . 320-321
6 JDR MICRODEVICES .... 340-344
7 JDR MICRODEVICES .... 340-344
118 JENSEN & PARTNERS, INT’L. . 133
119 J.B. COMPU-TRONIX . 336
120 KADAK . 325
121 KEA SYSTEMS . 336
122 KNOWLEDGE GARDEN . 223
123 KORE . 336
124 LA COMPUTER . 326
125 LA COMPUTER . 326
1 26 LAHEY COMPUTER SYSTEMS . 264
127 LASER CONNECTION.THE .... 21
128 LINK COMPUTER GRAPHICS . 334
129 LOGICAL DEVICES . 329
130 LOGICAL DEVICES . 329
131 LOGICAL DEVICES . 329
132 LOGICAL DEVICES . 329
133 LOGITECH . 22,23
134 LOGITECH . 22,23
135 LOGITECH . 70,71
136 LOGITECH . 70,71
137 MANNESMANN TALLY . 155
138 MANNESMANN TALLY . 155
139 MATHSOFT . 67
140 MATRIX . 127
• MCGRAW-HILL BOOKS . 292
• MCGRAW-HILL NRI . 32A-B
142 MEAD COMPUTER . 331
143 MEDIA CYBERNETICS . 188
144 MEDIA CYBERNETICS . 188
145 MEGASOFT . 330
146 MEGASOFT . 330
147 MEGATEL . 104
148 MERRITT COMPUTER PROD. . 104
149 MICHAEL HALVERSON & ASSOC. . . 336
Inquiry No. Page No.
150 MICROCOM SYSTEMS . 24
* MICROCOMP. MKTG.COUNCIL 241
152 MICROPROCESSORS UNLTD. . 329
* MICROSOFT . 13
* MICROSOFT . 15
* MICROSOFT . 118,119
* MICROSOFT . 160,161
153 MICROSTAR SOFTWARE ....328
* MICROWAY . 53
154 MICROWAY . 153
155 MITSUBISHI MONITORS . 124,125
156 MITSUBISHI MONITORS . 124,125
159 MIX SOFTWARE . 181
160 MIX SOFTWARE . 183
161 MONTGOMERY GRANT . 216
162 MR. BOOKS, INC . 54
163 M.H.1 . 319
164 NANAO . 144
165 NANAO . 144
166 NANTUCKET . 55
167 NATIONAL INSTRUMENT .... 150
168 NATIONAL INSTRUMENT ....150
169 NATURAL MICROSYSTEMS . 262
* NEC HOME ELECT . 272,273
* NEC INFORMATION SYSTEMS Clll
170 NOHAUCORP . 180
171 ON TARGET . 334
* ORACLE . 73
172 OVERLAND DATA . 329
173 PACIFIC COMPUTER . 323
174 PACIFIC COMPUTER . 323
175 PARA SYSTEMS . 41
1 76 PATTON & PATTON . 122
177 PAUL MACE SOFTWARE . 32
178 PAUL MACE SOFTWARE . 147
256 PERISCOPE COMPANY . 135
179 PERSONAL SPACE COMM. ... 329
265 PETER NORTON . 76,77
266 PETER NORTON . 76,77
180 PHAR LAP SOFTWARE . 26
181 PRINCETON DISKETTE . 329
182 PROGRAMMER’S PARADISE 62,63
183 PROGRAMMER’S SHOP . 134
184 PROTECH MARKETING . 214
185 PROTEUS TECH. CORP . 27
186 QUA TECH . 330
187 QUA TECH . 330
188 QUA TECH . 330
189 QUA TECH . 330
190 QUALSTAR . 338
191 QUANTUM SOFTWARE . 91
192 QUARTERDECK . 159
193 RADIO SHACK . CIV
194 RADIO SHACK . 117
* RAIMA . 185
195 RAINBOW TECH . 179
196 RAINBOW TECH . 179
197 RAINBOW TECH . 338
1 98 REAL TIME DEVICES . 327
199 RENEGADE TECHNOLOGY .. 8,9
200 ROSE ELECTRONICS . 162
260 S-100 . 194
261 S-100 . 194
201 SABINA . 327
202 SAFEWARE . 322
203 SANTA CRUZ OPERATION . . . . 85
204 SAX SOFTWARE . 244
205 SCHWAB COMPUTER CTR. ..327
206 SCOPE ELECTRONICS . 329
* SEAGATE . 39
207 SHAMROCK . 59
208 SIMPLE NET SYSTEMS . 167
209 SIMPLE NET SYSTEMS . 167
210 SMIS . 94
211 SN’W ELECTRONICS . 182
212 SOFTRONICS . 327
* SOFTWARE DEV. SYS . 99
213 SOFTWARE LINK . 28,29
214 SOFTWARE LINK . 28,29
217 SOLUTION SYSTEMS . 136
Inquiry No.
Page No.
218
SPECTRUM SOFTWARE .
. 79
219
STATSOFT .
. ... 123
221
STSC STATGRAPHICS . . .
. ... 131
222
SUNFLEX SOFTWARE . . .
. ... 215
223
SUNFLEX SOFTWARE . . .
. ... 215
263
SUPERSOFT .
. ... 102
224
SURAH .
... 327
225
SYMANTEC .
. 45
226
SYSGEN, INC .
. 17
227
TELCOR .
.... 246
228
TELEBIT .
164,165
229
TELEMART .
52
230
TELEMART .
. 52
231
TIGERTRONICS .
60
•
TINNEY.ROBT. GRAPHICS 268,269
232
TOSHIBA COMPUTERS . .
106,107
233
TOSHIBA COMPUTERS . .
106,107
234
TOUCHBASE SYSTEMS INC. .18
235
TRAVELING SOFTWARE .
. 47
236
TRUE DATA .
46
237
TRUEVISION .
. ... 219
238
VAULT .
210
239
VENDEX .
48,49
•
VERMONT CREATIVE S/W
' .... 10
240
VERSASOFT .
. 90
241
VNS AMERICA .
148,149
243
VUMAN COMPUTER SYSTEMS 1 54
244
WANG MICROSYSTEMS .
. . 56,57
245
WAREHOUSE DATA .
. 82,83
246
WAREHOUSE DATA .
. 82,83
247
WELLS AMERICAN (DOMESTIC) 1 9
364
WELLS AMERICAN (FOREIGN) . . 19
248
WIESEMANN & THEIS . . .
. ... 140
249
WINTEK CORP .
. 5
250
WINTEK CORP .
. 327
251
XELTEK .
330
252
ZAMBINI BROTHERS S/W
. ... 186
253
ZEOS INTERNATIONAL . .
168,169
254
ZERICON .
.... 201
255
Z-WORLD .
... 338
INTERNATIONAL SECTION 96 IS 1 -52
No North American Inquiries please.
401 ACME TECHNOLOGY . . . 96IS-28
402 BIX . 96IS-50
403 BLUE CHIP TECHNOLOGY 96IS-26
404 BRISTOL SOFTWARE . . . 96IS-41
* BYTE CIRCULATION .... 96IS-52
* BYTE BACK ISSUE/SALE . 96IS-46
* BYTE INTERNATIONAL PC 96IS-34
* BYTE SUB MESSAGE . . . 96IS-36
* BYTEWEEK/NEWSLETTER 96IS-48
* CALEND . 96IS-49
405 CAMBRIDGE CNTRL. LTD. 96IS-44
' CLEO SOFTWARE . 96IS-19
406 COBALT BLUE . 96IS-26
407 COMP. ELEKTRONIK INFOSYS 96IS-15
408 CUBIX . 96IS-27
409 DATAMAN LTD . 96/S-47
410 DATEX . 96IS-21
411 ELONEX . 96IS-25
412 E.E.P.D. GMBH . 96IS-24
413 GAMMA PRODUCTIONS . 96IS-30
41 4 GOLTEN VERWER & PARTNERS 96IS-42
415 GREY MATTER . 96IS-35
416 INES . 96IS-26
417 INTERQUADRAM . 96IS-7
418 INTERQUADRAM . 96IS-9
419 INTERQUADRAM . 96IS-11
420 IXI LTD . 96IS-42
421 KADOR . 96IS-40
422 LOGIC PROGRAMMING ASSOC. 96IS-28
423 MAYFAIR MICROS . 96IS-37
424 MICRO TECHNOLOGY . . . 96IS-39
425 MICROMINT . 96IS-18
426 MICROPHAR . 96IS-16
427 MICROPORT INT’L . 96IS-43
428 NIPPON COLUMBIA . 96IS-33
348 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
READER
SERVICE
Advertising Supplement included with this issue:
Priority One Electronics (U.S. and Canada Subscribers)
* Correspond directly with company.
Inquiry No. Page No.
429 NOVELL DEVELOPMENT . 96IS-31
430 PHILIPS . 96IS-4
431 RHV . 96IS-29
432 RINGDALE PERIPHERALS 96IS-45
* ROBT. TINNEY GRAPHICS 96IS-51
433 SBT . 96IS-2
* SOFTUNE CORPORATION 96IS-23
436 SOFTWAVEAPS . 96IS-42
437 TECHPOWERCO . 96IS-38
438 THORBURN & ASSOC. . 96IS-40
439 TOPLINK COMP. CO. LTD. 96IS-32
440 TRIANGLE DIGITAL . 96IS-40
441 UNITECH . 96IS-20
442 U.S. A. SOFTWARE . 96IS-13
443 WORDPERFECT CORP. . 96IS-17
mr L DIRECT RESPONSE POSTCARDS
* ASHLING . 96IS
* DATA SOURCES . 96IS
* DIGI DATA CORP . 96IS
* DIGI DATA CORP . 96IS
* INLINE CORP . . 96IS
* LANGUAGE TECH . 96IS
* METRA BYTE INC . 96IS
* MICRO-SIM . 96IS
* S.M.T. INC . 96IS
Inquiry No. Page No.
* SOFTWARE BLACKSMITH . . . 96IS
* SOFTWARE EXCITEMENT. . . 96IS
* U.S. PROFESSIONAL DEV. . . 96IS
REGIONAL SECTIONS
Midwest 96 MW 1-8
* BYTE TIPS . 96MW-4
496 COMPARE COMPUTERS 96MW-6.7
497 COMPARE COMPUTERS 96MW-6.7
498 COM-TEK DATA . 96MW-3
499 COM-TEK DATA . 96MW-3
500 O.S. ASSOCIATES . 96MW-2
501 O.S. ASSOCIATES . 96MW-2
502 UNDERWARE ELECT. . . . 96MW-8
503 Y.E.S. MULTINATIONAL . . 96MW-1
Mid-Atlantic 96 M/AT 1-8
488 ARRAKIS CORP . 96M/AT-2
489 ARRAKIS CORP . 96M/AT-2
490 NET LOGIC . 96M/AT-3
491 NET LOGIC . 96M/AT-3
492 OWL COMPUTERS . 96M/AT-1
493 UNDERWARE ELECT. . . 96M/AT-8
Inquiry No. Page No.
Northeast 96 NE 1-16
* BYTE TIPS . 96NE-4
508 COM-TEK DATA . 96NE-11
509 COM-TEK DATA . 96NE-11
510 COPY TECHNOLOGIES . . . 96NE-9
51 1 COPY TECHNOLOGIES . . . 96NE-9
512 ELECTRIFIED DISCOUNTERS. . 96NE-3
513 HERTZ COMPUTER . 96NE-5
514 JASMINE COMP. SYS. . . 96NE-12
515 LOGIX MICROCOMPUTER . 96NE-8
516 LOGIX MICROCOMPUTER . 96NE-8
517 LOGIX MICROCOMPUTER . 96NE-8
518 MANCHESTER EQUIP. CO. 96NE-1
519 NEWER TECHNOLOGY . . 96NE-15
520 PC LINK . 96NE-7
521 PD SOFTWARE HOUSE . . 96NE-10
523 SOFTWARE BOTTLING CO. ..96NE-13
524 UNDERWARE ELECT. . . .96NE-16
525 WESTWOOD COMPUTER . 96NE-2
Pacific Coast 96 PC 1-16
531 3-F ASSOCIATES . 96PC-3
532 4 GUYS COMPUTERS .... 96PC-4
533 BRADFORD BUS. SYS. . . . 96PC-2
Inquiry No. Page No.
534 CORTEX COMPUTING . . . 96PC-13
* DIGITAL EQUIP. CORP. . 96PC-7
535 INTERFACE ADVERTISING . 96PC-5
536 MID-CITIES COMPUTERS . 96PC-1 1
537 NEWER TECHNOLOGY . . . 96PC-8
538 SAK TECHNOLOGY . 96PC-9
539 SEVERE DISC. COMP. . . 96PC-1 3
540 SF MICRO . 96PC-15
541 TODAY COMPUTERS . 96PC-1
542 TODAY COMPUTERS . 96PC-1
543 UNDERWARE ELECT. . . .96PC-16
South 96 SO 1-8
476 4 GUYS COMPUTERS . . . .96SO-2
477 BELTRON COMPUTER . . . 96SO-1
478 COMP. MASTERS OF AUG. 96SO-3
484 DALLAS SYSTEMS . 96SO-6
479 DRS POWER . 96SO-5
480 DRS POWER . 96SO-5
481 NEWER TECHNOLOGY . . . 96SO-7
482 PD SOFTWARE HOUSE . . . 96SO-4
483 UNDERWARE ELECT . 96SO-8
* Correspond directly with company.
BYTE ADVERTISING SALES STAFF:
Steven M. Vito, Associate Publisher/V.P. of Marketing, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458, tel. (603) 924-9281
Dennis J. Riley, Eastern Regional Sales Manager, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458, tel. (603) 924-9281
Jennifer L. Bartel, West Coast Regional Sales Manager, 8111 LBJ Freeway, Suite 1350, Dallas, Tx 75251.
tel. (214) 644-1111
L. Bradley Browne, Telemarketing Director, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458, tel. (603)
924-9281
NEW ENGLAND
SOUTHEAST
SOUTH PACIFIC
BYTE BITS (2x3)
ME. NH, VT, MA. RI. ONTARIO
NC.SC.GA.FL, AL.TN, VA
SOUTHERN CA, AZ, NM.
Mark Stone (603) 924-6830
Liz Coyman (603) 924-2518
CANADA & EASTERN CANADA
Thomas Tolbert (404) 252-0626
LAS VEGAS
BYTE Publications
John C. Moon (617)262-1160
McGraw-Hill Publications
Jack Anderson (714) 557-6292
One Phoenix Mill Lane
McGraw-Hill Publications
4170 Ashford-Dunwoody Road
McGraw-Hill Publications
Peterborough, NH 03458
Peterborough, NH 03458
575 Boylston Street
Suite 420
3001 Red Hill Ave.
Boston. MA 02116
Atlanta, GA 30319
Building #1— Suite 222
The Buyer’s Mart (1x2)
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Brian Higgins (603) 924-3754
Ed Ware (603) 924-6166
ATLANTIC
MIDWEST
BYTE Publications
NY. NYC. CT.NJ (NORTH)
IL, MO, KS, IA, ND, SD, MN,
Tom Harvey (213) 480-5243
One Phoenix Mill Lane
Leah G. Rabinowitz (212) 512-2096
KY. OH, WI, NB, IN, MI, MS
McGraw-Hill Publications
Peterborough, NH 03458
Ken Tashjy (212)512-2645
Kurt Kelley (312) 751-3740
3333 Wilshirc Boulevard #407
McGraw-Hill Publications
McGraw-Hill Publications
Los Angeles, CA 90010
Regional Advertising
A/E/C Computing Deck
1221 Avenue of the Americas—
Blair Building
Scott Gagnon (603) 924-4380
Computing for Engineers
36th Floor
645 North Michigan Ave.
NORTH PACIFIC
BYTE Publications
New York, NY 10020
Chicago, IL 60611
HI, WA.OR.ID, MT.
One Phoenix Mill Lane
(603) 924-2664
NORTHERN CA,
Peterborough, NH 03458
BYTE Publications
EAST
SOUTHWEST,
NV (except LAS VEGAS).
PA. NJ (SOUTH),
ROCKY MOUNTAIN
W. CANADA
Larry Levine (603) 924-4379
MD. W.VA, DE.D.C.
CO, WY , OK. TX, AR, LA, UT
Christine Kopec (415) 362-4600
BYTE Publications
Thomas J. Brun (215) 496-3833
Karl Heinrich (713) 462-0757
McGraw-Hill Publications
One Phoenix Mill Lane
McGraw-Hill Publications
McGraw-Hill Publications
425 Battery Street
Peterborough, NH 03458
Three Parkway
7600 W. Tidwell Rd. -Suite 500
San Francisco, CA 941 1 1
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Houston, TX 77040
Barry Echavarria (603) 924-2574
Bill McAfee (408)879-0371
BYTE Publications
Field Sales Associate:
McGraw-Hill Publications
One Phoenix Mill Lane
Dan Harper (603) 924-2598
1999 South Bascom Ave.
Peterborough, NH 03458
Suite #210
Campbell, CA 95008
Field Sales Associate:
Elisa Lister (603) 924-2665
International Advertising Sales Staff:
Mr. Hans Csokor
Karen Lennie
Mrs. Maria Sarmiento
Seavex Ltd.
Masaki Mori
Publimedia
McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.
Pedro Teixeira 8, Off. 320
400 Orchard Road. #10-01
McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.
Reisncrstrasse61
34 Dover St.
Iberia Mart 1
Singapore 0923
Overseas Corp.
A- 1037 Vienna, Austria
London W1X4BR
Madrid 4, Spain
Republic of Singapore
Room 1528
222 75 76 84
England 01 493 1451
1 45 52 891
Tel: 734-9790
Kasumigaseki Bldg.
Telex: RS35539 SEAVEX
3-2-5 Kasumigaseki,
Mrs. Gurit Gepner
Michael Karnig
Emilio Zerboni
Chiyoda-Ku
McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.
Andrew Karnig & Associates
McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.
Seavex Ltd.
Tokyo 100, Japan
PO Box 2156
Finnbodavagen
Via Flavio Baracchini 1
503 Wilson House
3 581 9811
Bat Yam. 59121 Israel
S-131 31 Nacka, Sweden
20123 Milan, Italy
19-27 Wyndham St.
3 866 561 321 39
8-44 0005
(2) 89010103
Central, Hong Kong
Mr. Ernest McCrary
Tel: 5-260149
Empresa Intemacional de
Ros Weyman
Mr. Alain Faure
Telex: 60904 SEVEX HX
Comunicacoes Ltda.
Serving Germany, Austria, & Switzerland
McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.
Rua da Consolacao, 222
McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.
128 Faubourg Saint Honore
Conjunto 103
34 Dover St.
75008 Paris
01302 Sao Paulo, S.P., Brasil
London W1X4BR
France
Tel: (11)259-3811
England 01 493 1451
(1)42-89-03-81
Telex: (100) 32122 EMBN
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 349
READER
SERVICE
To get further information on the products advertised in BYTE, fill out
the reader service card by circling the numbers on the card that cor¬
respond to the inquiry number listed with the advertiser. This index is
provided as an additional service by the publisher, who assumes no
liability for errors or omissions.
* Correspond directly with company.
Index to Advertisers by Product Category
Inquiry No. Page No.
HARDWARE
268 ADD INS
12 ALPHA PRODUCTS . 332,333
23 ATI TECHNOLOGIES . 93
29 B & C MICROSYSTEMS . 327
30 B & C MICROSYSTEMS . 327
403 BLUE CHIP TECHNOLOGY . IS-26
49 CAPITAL EQUIPMENT . 128
50 CAPITAL EQUIPMENT . 129
259 CLEARPOINT . 237
66 CONTROL VISION . 334
408 CUBIX . IS-27
69 DATA TRANSLATION . 31
82 EDCGMBH . 92
96 GENOA . 75
417 INTERQUADRAM . IS-7
418 INTERQUADRAM . IS-9
419 INTERQUADRAM . IS-11
111 10 TECH . Ill
112 10 TECH . 338
425 MICROMINT . IS-18
481 NEWER TECHNOLOGY . SO-7
519 NEWER TECHNOLOGY .... NE-15
537 NEWER TECHNOLOGY . PC-8
170 NOHAUCORP . 180
179 PERSONAL SPACE COMM. ... 329
430 PHILIPS . IS-4
186 QUA TECH . 330
187 QUA TECH . 330
188 QUA TECH . 330
189 QUA TECH . 330
198 REALTIME DEVICES . 327
210 SMIS . 94
437 TECHPOWERCO . IS-38
237 TRUEVISION . 219
255 Z-WORLD . 338
269 DRIVES
* SEAGATE . 39
226 SYSGEN, INC . 17
231 TIGERTRONICS . 60
270 HARDWARE PROGRAMMERS
29 B & C MICROSYSTEMS . 327
30 B & C MICROSYSTEMS . 327
40 BP MICROSYSTEMS . 322
43 BYTEK . 325
100 GTEKINC . 92
123 KORE . 336
Inquiry No. Page No.
128 LINK COMPUTER GRAPHICS . 334
271 INSTRUMENTATION
83
ELEXOR .
. 338
119
J.B. COMPU-TRONIX . . .
. 336
272
KEYBOARDS/MICE
113
ITAC SYSTEMS, INC. . . .
. 130
133
LOGITECH .
. . . 22,23
134
LOGITECH .
22,23
441
UNITECH .
... IS-20
273
MASS
STORAGE
11
AK SYSTEMS .
. 322
31
BASF .
. 141
32
BASF .
. 143
36
BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING. . . 30
428
NIPPON COLUMBIA. . . .
.... IS-33
172
OVERLAND DATA .
. 329
190
QUALSTAR .
. 338
*
MISCELLANEOUS
33
BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC
. 43
41
BUFFALO PRODUCTS . .
. 35
67
COVOX .
. 336
409
DATAMAN LTD .
.... IS-47
257
ENGINEERS COLLABORATIVE 336
104
HARRIS/3M .
288,289
*
INTECTRA .
. 325
108
INTEGRAND .
. 40
421
KADOR .
IS-40
129
LOGICAL DEVICES .
329
130
LOGICAL DEVICES .
. 329
131
LOGICAL DEVICES .
. 329
132
LOGICAL DEVICES .
329
147
MEGATEL .
. 104
251
XELTEK .
. 330
274
MODEMS/MULTIPLEXORS
*
CLEO SOFTWARE .
. . . . IS-19
57
COMPUCOM CORP .
. 54
169
NATURAL MICROSYSTEMS . . 262
227
TELCOR .
. 246
228
TELEBIT .
. 164,165
234
TOUCHBASE SYSTEMS INC. .18
275
MONITORS
155
MITSUBISHI MONITORS
124,125
156
MITSUBISHI MONITORS
124,125
Inquiry No. Page No.
164 NANAO . 144
165 NANAO . 144
276 NETWORK HARDWARE
33
BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC. .
. . . 43
41
BUFFALO PRODUCTS ....
. 35
51
CARRIER CURRENT TECH
. 96
52
CARRIER CURRENT TECH
... 96
408
CUBIX .
IS-27
410
DATEX .
. IS-21
490
NET LOGIC .
M/AT-3
491
NET LOGIC .
M/AT-3
179
PERSONAL SPACE COMM.
. 329
432
RINGDALE PERIPHERALS
. IS-45
200
ROSE ELECTRONICS ....
. . 162
248
WIESEMANN & THEIS ....
. . 140
277
POWER SUPPLIES
479
DRS POWER .
. SO-5
480
DRS POWER .
. SO-5
85
EMERSON COMPUTER POWER 16
86
EMERSON COMPUTER POWER 16
175
PARA SYSTEMS .
... 41
206
SCOPE ELECTRONICS . . .
. . 329
278
PRINTERS/PLOTTERS
33
BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC. .
... 43
41
BUFFALO PRODUCTS ....
... 35
137
MANNESMANN TALLY. . . .
. . 155
138
MANNESMANN TALLY ....
. . 155
254
ZERICON .
. . 201
279
PRINTER RIBBONS
60
COMPUTER FRIENDS .
... 44
280
SCANNERS/DIGITIZERS
69
DATA TRANSLATION .
... 31
89
FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING
. . 120
90
FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING
. . 120
91
FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING
. . 120
92
FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING
. . 120
105
HIGH RES TECHNOLOGIES
. . 322
135
LOGITECH .
70,71
136
LOGITECH .
70,71
236
TRUE DATA .
... 46
281
SOFTWARE SECURITY
404
BRISTOL SOFTWARE .
. IS-41
407
COMP. ELEKTRONIK INF0SYS . .
IS-15
Inquiry No. Page No.
426 MICROPHAR . IS-16
184 PROTECH MARKETING . 214
195 RAINBOW TECH . 179
196 RAINBOW TECH . 179
197 RAINBOW TECH . 338
238 VAULT . 210
282 SYSTEMS
401 ACME TECHNOLOGY . IS-28
* AMPRO . 126
* AST RESEARCH . 193
477 BELTRON COMPUTER . SO-1
34 BEST COMPUTER . 204
35 BEST COMPUTER . 204
498 COM-TEKDATA . MW-3
499 COM-TEKDATA . MW-3
508 COM-TEKDATA . NE-11
509 COM-TEKDATA . NE-11
71 DATAWORLD . 196
72 DATAWORLD . 196
73 DELL COMPUTER CORP. . . . CII.1
74 DELL COMPUTER CORP . 81
79 DTK . 228
80 DTK . 228
411 ELONEX . IS-25
412 E.E.P.D. GMBH . IS-24
88 FIVESTAR COMPUTERS . . . 36,37
95 GATEWAY 2000 . 87
513 HERTZ COMPUTER . NE-5
262 IEEE . 234
515 LOGIX MICROCOMPUTER ..NE-8
516 LOGIX MICROCOMPUTER ..NE-8
517 LOGIX MICROCOMPUTER ..NE-8
146 MEGASOFT . 330
• NEC HOME ELECT . 272,273
• NEC INFORMATION SYS . Clll
492 OWL COMPUTERS . M/AT-1
185 PROTEUS TECH. CORP . 27
193 RADIO SHACK . CIV
194 RADIO SHACK . 117
199 RENEGADE TECHNOLOGY .. 8,9
540 SF MICRO . PC-15
541 TODAY COMPUTERS . PC-1
542 TODAY COMPUTERS . PC-1
439 TOPLINK COMP. CO. LTD. . . . IS-32
232 TOSHIBA COMPUTERS . . 106,107
233 TOSHIBA COMPUTERS . . 106,107
440 TRIANGLE DIGITAL . IS-40
239 VENDEX . 48,49
241 VNS AMERICA . 148,149
244 WANG MICROSYSTEMS . . . 56,57
247 WELLS AMERICAN (DOMESTIC) 19
364 WELLS AMERICAN (FOREIGN) . 19
350 BYTE- FEBRUARY 1989
READER
SERVICE
Advertising Supplement included with this issue:
Priority One Electronics (U.S. and Canada Subscribers)
* Correspond directly with company.
Inquiry No. Page No.
253 ZEOS INTERNATIONAL . . 168,169
SOFTWARE
283
IBM/MS-DOS APPLICATIONS
Business/Office
•
APPLIED COMPUTING SERV.
209
16
ASHTONTATE .
. 101
17
ASHTONTATE .
. 101
18
ASHTONTATE .
. 103
19
ASHTONTATE .
. 103
20
ASHTON-TATE .
. 105
21
ASHTONTATE .
. 105
533
BRADFORD BUS. SYSTEMS .
PC-2
93
FOX SOFTWARE .
. 25
94
FTG DATA SYSTEMS .
. 334
413
GAMMA PRODUCTIONS . . . .
IS-30
166
NANTUCKET .
. . 55
429
NOVELL DEVELOPMENT ...
IS-31
•
ORACLE .
. . 73
•
RAIMA .
. 185
433
SBT .
. IS-2
225
SYMANTEC .
. 45
240
VERSASOFT .
. 90
284
IBM/MS-DOS APPLICATIONS
Sclentlflc/Teclrnical
405
CAMBRIDGE CONTROL LTD. IS-44
81
ECOSOFT .
213
414
GOLTEN VERWER & PARTNERS .
IS-42
101
HAMMERLY .
. . 61
416
INES .
IS-26
422
LOGIC PROGRAMMING ASSOC. . .
IS-28
139
MATHSOFT .
. . 67
167
NATIONAL INSTRUMENT . . .
. 150
168
NATIONAL INSTRUMENT ...
. 150
176
PATTON & PATTON .
122
218
SPECTRUM SOFTWARE . . . .
. 79
219
STATSOFT .
. 123
221
STSC STATGRAPHICS .
. 131
222
SUNFLEX SOFTWARE .
. 215
223
SUNFLEX SOFTWARE .
. 215
285
IBM/MS-DOS APPLICATIONS
Word Processing
443
WORDPERFECT CORP .
IS-17
286
IBM/MS-DOS -
-CAD
14 AMERICAN SM. BUS. COMP. .138
45 CADAM . 95
Inquiry No. Page No.
46 CADAM . 95
431 RHV . IS-29
249 WINTEK CORP . 5
250 WINTEK CORP . 327
287 IBM/MS-DOS - LAN
490 NET LOGIC . M/AT-3
491 NETLOGIC . M/AT-3
208 SIMPLE NET SYSTEMS 167
209 SIMPLE NET SYSTEMS . 167
288 IBM/MS-DOS - GRAPHICS
* DAYTRON ELECTRONICS ... 334
143 MEDIA CYBERNETICS . 188
177 PAUL MACE SOFTWARE . 32
289 IBM/MS-DOS - LANGUAGES
8 A + L MEIER VOGT . 305
* BINARY TECH . 322
38 BORLAND . 69
39 BORLAND . 69
84 ELLIS COMPUTING, INC . 134
101 HAMMERLY . 61
118 JENSEN & PARTNERS, INT’L. . 133
126 LAHEY COMPUTER SYSTEMS 264
* MICROSOFT . 13
* MICROSOFT . 15
* MICROSOFT . 118,119
159 MIX SOFTWARE . 181
203 SANTA CRUZ OPERATION . 85
290 IBM/MS-DOS - UTILITIES
9 A + L MEIER VOGT . 307
15 ANNABOOKS . 338
488 ARRAKIS CORPORATION . M/AT-2
489 ARRAKIS CORPORATION . M/AT-2
24 ATRON . 64
* BINARY TECH . 322
37 BLAISE . 33
44 C SOURCE . 187
* CALEND . IS-49
47 CALIFORNIA SOFTWARE ... 322
48 CALIFORNIA SOFTWARE . 322
406 COBALT BLUE . IS-26
510 COPY TECHNOLOGIES . NE-9
511 COPY TECHNOLOGIES . NE-9
534 CORTEX COMPUTING . PC-13
70 DATACODE.INC . 58
* DAYTRON ELECTRONICS .... 334
98 GOLDEN BOW . 50
101 HAMMERLY . 61
420 IXI LTD . IS-42
122 KNOWLEDGE GARDEN . 223
Inquiry No. Page No.
140 MATRIX . 127
160 MIX SOFTWARE . 183
500 O.S. ASSOCIATES . MW-2
501 O.S. ASSOCIATES . MW-2
178 PAUL MACE SOFTWARE . 147
256 PERISCOPE COMPANY . 135
265 PETER NORTON . 76,77
266 PETER NORTON . 76,77
180 PHAR LAP SOFTWARE . 26
192 QUARTERDECK . 159
538 SAK TECHNOLOGY . PC-9
204 SAX SOFTWARE . 244
523 SOFTWARE BOTTLING CO. NE-13
263 SUPERSOFT . 102
235 TRAVELING SOFTWARE . 47
* VERMONT CREATIVE S/W .... 10
252 ZAMBINI BROTHERS S/W .... 186
291 IBM/MS-DOS COMMUNICATIONS
54 COEFFICIENT SYSTEMS . 46
78 DIVERSIFIED COMPUTER. ... 322
99 GRAFPOINT . 336
121 KEA SYSTEMS . 336
212 SOFTRONICS . 327
292 OTHER -CROSS DEVELOPMENT
* SOFTWARE DEV. SYS . 99
293 MAIL ORDER/
RETAIL
258 2001 SALES, INC . 152
531 3-F ASSOCIATES . PC-3
476 4 GUYS COMPUTERS . SO-2
532 4 GUYS COMPUTERS . PC-4
26 ADVANCED COMP. PROD. ... 339
10 ADVANTAGE SOFTWARE .. . 287
13 ALTEX ELECTRONICS . 324
27 A.N. WHOLESALE & RETAIL . . 322
28 B & B ELECTRONICS . 325
* BUYERS MART . 308-318
* CALIFORNIA DIGITAL . 337
55 COMPACT DISK PRODUCTS ... 60
496 COMPARE COMPUTERS . MW-6,7
497 COMPARE COMPUTERS. MW-6,7
56 COMPUCLASSICS . 250
58 COMPUSAVE . 323
61 COMPUTER MAIL ORDER. . 88,89
478 COMP. MASTERS OF AUG. . . SO-3
63 COMPUTER SURPLUS STORE 322
64 COMPUTERLANE UNLTD . 195
65 CONTECH COMPUTER CORP. 325
484 DALLAS SYSTEMS . SO-6
76 DISKCOTECH . 338
Inquiry No. Page No.
77 DISKETTE CONNECTION ... 325
512 ELECTRIFIED DISCOUNTERSNE-3
87 EXECUTIVE PHOTO & SUPPLY 1 56
415 GREY MATTER . IS-35
102 HARD DRIVES INT’L . 203
103 HARD DRIVES INT'L . 203
106 1C EXPRESS . 325
115 JADE COMPUTER . 335
116 JAMECO . 320-321
514 JASMINE COMPUTER SYST. NE-1 2
6 JDR MICRODEVICES .... 340-344
7 JDR MICRODEVICES .... 340-344
124 LA COMPUTER . 326
125 LA COMPUTER . 326
518 MANCHESTER EQUIP. CO. . . NE-1
423 MAYFAIR MICROS . IS-37
142 MEAD COMPUTER . 331
144 MEDIA CYBERNETICS . 188
145 MEGASOFT . 330
148 MERRITT COMPUTER PROD. 104
149 MICHAEL HALVERSON & ASSOC 336
424 MICRO TECHNOLOGY . IS-39
150 MICROCOM SYSTEMS . 24
* MICROCOMP. MKTG.COUNCIL241
152 MICROPROCESSORS UNLTD. 329
153 MICROSTAR SOFTWARE ... 328
* MICROWAY . 53
154 MICROWAY . 153
536 MID-CITIES COMPUTERS PC-11
1 61 MONTGOMERY GRANT . 216
162 MR. BOOKS, INC . 54
173 PACIFIC COMPUTER . 323
174 PACIFIC COMPUTER . 323
520 PC LINK . 7
482 PD SOFTWARE HOUSE . SO-4
521 PD SOFTWARE HOUSE . ... NE-1 0
181 PRINCETON DISKETTE . 329
1 82 PROGRAMMER’S PARADISE 62,63
183 PROGRAMMER’S SHOP . 134
201 SABINA . 327
205 SCHWAB COMPUTER CTR. . 327
539 SEVERE DISCOUNT COMP. PC-13
207 SHAMROCK . 59
211 SN’W ELECTRONICS . 182
* SOFTLINE CORPORATION IS-23
436 SOFTWAVEAPS . IS-42
217 SOLUTION SYSTEMS . 136
224 SURAH . 327
260 S-100 . 194
261 S-100 . 194
229 TELEMART . 52
230 TELEMART . 52
483 UNDERWARE ELECTRONICS SO-8
493 UNDERWARE ELECTRONICS . . M/AT-8
502 UNDERWARE ELECTRONICS MW-8
FEBRUARY 1989 • B Y T E 351
READER
SERVICE
Advertising Supplement included with this issue:
Priority One Electronics (U.S. and Canada Subscribers)
* Correspond directly with company.
Inquiry No. Page No.
524 UNDERWARE ELECTRONICSNE-1 6
543 UNDERWARE ELECTRONICSPC-1 6
442 U.S. A. SOFTWARE . IS-13
245 WAREHOUSE DATA . 82,83
246 WAREHOUSE DATA . 82,83
525 WESTWOOD COMPUTER . . . NE-2
503 Y.E.S. MULTINATIONAL. . . . MW-1
294 EDUCATIONAL/
INSTRUCTIONAL
* BYTE BACK ISSUES . 318
* BYTE BACK ISSUE/SALE ... IS-46
* BYTE CIRCULATION . 282
* BYTE CIRCULATION . IS-52
* BYTE INT’L. POSTCARDS . . . IS-34
* BYTE SUB. MESSAGE . IS-36
* BYTE SUB. MESSAGE . 146
* BYTE SUB. MESSAGE . 306
Inquiry No. Page No.
* BYTE SUB. SERVICE . 202
* BYTE TIPS . MW-4
* BYTE TIPS . NE-4
* BYTEWEEK/NEWSLETTER ... 221
* BYTEWEEK/NEWSLETTER . . IS-48
62 COMPUTER PR0F.B00K S0CTY . 281
68 CYBER RESEARCH . 334
97 GEYSER INFORMATICS . 108
535 INTERFACE ADVERTISING . . PC-5
* MCGRAW-HILL BOOKS . 292
* MCGRAW-HILL NRI . 32A-B
295 DESKTOP
PUBLISHING
* ADOBE . 224,225
127 LASER CONNECTION, THE . . . . 21
• MICROSOFT . 160,161
204 SAX SOFTWARE . 244
Inquiry No. Page No.
243 VUMAN COMPUTER SYSTEMS1 54
296 RECRUITMENT
438 THORBURN & ASSOCIATES IS-40
MISCELLANEOUS
171 ON TARGET . 334
* ROBT. TINNEY GRAPHICS . IS-51
* ROBT. TINNEY GRAPHICS 268,269
202 SAFEWARE . 322
297 OPERATING
SYSTEMS
* DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORP. PC-7
Inquiry No. Page No.
109 INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS . 7
110 INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS . 7
120 KADAK . 325
427 MICROPORT INT’L . IS-43
191 QUANTUM SOFTWARE . 91
213 SOFTWARE LINK . 28,29
214 SOFTWARE LINK . 28,29
298 ON-LINE
SERVICES
* BIX . 271
450 BIX . 298,299
402 BIX . IS-50
* BIX . 345
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PLEASE PRINT,
1
2
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1ST
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149 ISO
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109
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ITS
179 100
Title
Phone
131
1B2
163
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165
1E6
107
166
!89
190
1ST
192
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287
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302
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346
347
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351
352
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358
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361
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366
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369
370
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382
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386
387
388
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State Zip
391
392
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394
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399
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414
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437
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440
441
442
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444
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2 □ Computer Retail Stores
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
482
463
464
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470
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474
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461
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435
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487
488
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890
491
492
493
494
495
m
497
498
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502
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511
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517
518
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523
524
525
526
627
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530
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5 □ Distributor/ Wholesaler
541
542
543
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545
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548
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550
551
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553
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556
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556
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560
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562
563
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665
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6 G Systems House/
571
572
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575
576
577
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579
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507
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7 □ Other:
631
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636
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642
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631
662
663
664
665
666
667
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669
670
671
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574
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9 □ Finance, Insurance,
721
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751
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Name
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Title
Phone
Company
Address
City
State Zip
A. What Is your level of
2 □ Computer Retail Stores
management responsibility?
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2 Q Other Management
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3 □ Non-Managcirtcm
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7 □ Other; .
responsibility? (Cheek one.)
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Architecture)
Id O Education/Training
15 □ Consulting
1 1 □ Other:
15 □ Other Business Sendees
C. Please indicate your
(7 □ Transportation,
organization's primary business
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Computer- Related Businesses:
FEBRUARY
7 □ Manufacturer (Hard ware. Software)
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